With the proliferation of VoIP services, firms are experiencing the benefits of this innovative technology, but risk looms large. A major threat to those leveraging VoIP services is toll fraud, where users receive inordinate bills racked up by evil doers. This week, NTT (News - Alert) East and West announced their intention to offer subscribers partial compensation for these exorbitant phone bills.

The company has committed to paying out nearly $600,000 for users whose information was compromised and stolen in order to make costly international calls. Unfortunately, customers that did not request a suspension of international calls will not be receiving compensation.

The reason for the compensation is the delay in NTT’s ability to suspend services. In some cases it could take several days to process a request, and it is the charges racked up during this window the carrier is willing to offer recompense.

The Japan News reports a total of 120 cases of fraud that have been confirmed since 2010. And the gesture to pay customers back is in reaction to public demand, even though the two carriers take no responsibility for the fraud taking place. 

Also coming as a result of these instances of fraud, NTT East and West have announced that by the end of July all suspension requests will be processed.

According to The Japan News, The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry is expected to force IP phone carriers to be more aware of this activity. And, when suspicious activity is detected, carriers are directed to shut down the affected phone line (s).

IP telephony is not new. Firms have been leveraging IP-based communications and IP phones with great success for some time. These types of situations unfortunately occur more than one would think, but in most cases, taking the proper security precautions will safeguard a subscriber from falling prey.