Call it “The Phantom of the Operators” or whatever. It is fraud. Your long distance carrier, possibly, uses False Answer Supervision (FAS) and charges for the calls you could not make. Carriers can earn minimum 21 per cent extra profit through such fraudulent act. And organized criminals are there to help. FAS occurs when the calling party:
- is charged for a completed call even though the call was never connected.
- is charged for call set-up time rather than actual conversation time.
- is charged for his service provider’s deliberate attempt to re-route his call to automated messaging platforms.
Any of the above is a criminal act and FAS must be prohibited. The industry has, however, moved faster than the governments. Tata Communications has recently disconnected nearly a dozen unscrupulous carriers as part of its proactive actions to stamp out FAS.
Teaming up with the world’s top 10 wholesale Voice carriers, Tata has formed global FAS Forum. It provides educational outreach on FAS and a unified approach to developing and implementing steps to tackle the problem.
Have you seen your long distance phone bill lately? Is everything OK? If it is a prepaid connection – you are, possibly, just among the billions of unlucky.
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