TAMPA, Fla. – Jan. 10, 2017 – Syniverse, a leading provider of mobile solutions, today released the second report in its “Understanding the Global Threat of Mobile Fraud” series that draws on data from its risk management work with more than 120 mobile operators globally. The report spotlights the most critical roaming fraud trends during a one-year period, including when fraud attacks most frequently occur, the top 10 countries affected by fraud attacks, the top countries where fraud attacks originate, and the countries where the most fraudulent calls terminate.

“Analyzing firsthand data is invaluable in the fight against mobile fraud,” said Kyle Dorcas, Vice President, Policy and Risk Management, Syniverse. “Unfortunately, experiences with fraud attacks are not often shared between operators, which can limit knowledge and make the challenge of combating fraud much more difficult. Our global network of mobile operators and the data from our work with them creates a unique fraud protection database and a window into the most critical fraud threats.”

Top fraud locations around the world

In the second installment of its mobile fraud series, Syniverse analyzed data from Nov. 1, 2015, to Oct. 31, 2016, and ranked the top 10 countries impacted most frequently by fraud, which included these findings:

• The top three home countries affected: Brazil, the U.K. and Mexico.
• The top three countries from where fraudulent calls originated: the U.S., Spain and Peru.
• The top country for where fraudulent calls terminated: Cuba, which has gained a reputation as a hotspot for fraud termination because of the higher cost of calls terminating in that country.

A regional overview of fraud origination

The latest report also analyzes the regional variations in the top 10 originating destinations, including these results:

• The majority of fraud attacks that originated in Africa were found to take place within that region, where fraud attacks occur locally and do not extend to another continent.
• North America also displays extensive intra-region fraud, with the U.S. ranking highest globally, having 35 percent of all case volume of originating fraud.
• South America is more diverse in its makeup of originating countries, which include Peru, Luxembourg, Italy and Bolivia.

High-incident countries

Syniverse’s latest report also takes a closer look at high-incident countries – those that consistently rank highly for fraud origination and termination – and the makeup of traffic driving fraud in these locations. These findings include the following:

• Both the U.S. and Spain frequently rank highly for originating fraud. For the U.S., the use of national roaming over a wide area is apparently a major factor contributing to fraud. For Spain, the high volume of visitors from many different countries fosters an ideal environment for fraud to develop.
• 70 percent of SIMs that account for originating fraud in the U.S. are from Mexico, and the majority (56 percent) of fraud in Spain is perpetrated by SIM cards from the U.K.

The complete findings and analyses above can be viewed by downloading the full report here: http://bit.ly/2k45R9V.

The report series was developed by Syniverse’s Risk Management organization, which offers a number of services to help mobile service providers address roaming fraud as well as a range of other mobile fraud types. The first report in the “Understanding the Global Threat of Mobile Fraud” series reveals data from May 1, 2015, to April 30, 2016, and the results of both reports were calculated by aggregating the global data of over 120 operators that use Syniverse’s cloud-based fraud management services.

About Syniverse

For more information: