Toku is leading efforts to root out call scams in the telecom industry, with Singapore residents still at high risk of call scams
Kelly Choos
5 min read
SINGAPORE, June 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ —
-
In an effort to restore confidence in phone calls and as part of Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) initiatives to combat scams, Toku has joined the AB Handshake community, which will help eliminate 100% of fraudulent calls and protect people. scams for telecommunications service providers who have also joined this community.
-
A new survey of 1,000 consumers in Singapore by Toku revealed that 87% received a fraudulent call, of which 86% answered the said call. 10% of consumers surveyed have been victims of scams and suffered financial loss.
Toku, Asia Pacific dedicated cloud communications and Singapore-licensed telecommunications service provider, today announces that it is the first telecommunications service provider in Singaporeand South East Asia, to join the global AB Handshake community. Toku is currently the leading virtual number provider in Singaporeoffering 60% coverage of all virtual numbers in the country.
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) welcomes Toku’s decision to join the AB handshake community, which is an effort by Toku to proactively combat fraudulent calls. It represents a timely intervention within the Singapore telco space. According to Singapore Police forcevictims lost at least S$633.3 million to scams in 2021. Many of these scams relied on voice calls to trick victims, such as bank-related phishing scams, fake friend scams, and impersonation of foreign government officials.
A new survey reveals people in Singapore still largely vulnerable to phone scams
In a new survey commissioned by Toku, the results showed that:
-
Of the 1,000 respondents from Singapore, 87% of respondents had recently received a scam call and 75% actually answered the call. 10% of all respondents fell prey and suffered monetary losses.
-
While 59% of people showed greater reluctance to pick up numbers with a local country code displayed on their phone screen, 41% will still answer the call.
This means that people in Singapore are still largely vulnerable to phone scams if they are not vigilant.
Thomas Laboulle, founder and CEO of Toku said“As a Singaporean company, we are committed to finding new ways to protect Singapore community against scam calls that affect almost everyone. Fraudulent calls are responsible for the loss of personal information and the loss of billions of dollars for businesses. As phone scammers increasingly use sophisticated tactics to execute their fraudulent calls, we are working to restore trust in phone calls by eliminating fraudulent calls. As we gain momentum and work to build a stronger, more secure and fraud-free telecommunications community, we urge other telecommunications players to Singapore to join the ongoing efforts. »
Thomas Laboulle, Founder and CEO of Toku continues, “Looking beyond Singaporewe are ready to take this initiative to the other countries in the region where we operate, starting with Malaysia and Vietnam. With the telecommunications players of these countries on board, we would be able to guarantee that 179.58 million numbers are protected against fraudulent calls by the end of 2024.”
Create an ecosystem for increased transparency and integrity to eliminate call fraud
This growing global community of AB Handshake helps address ever-evolving call fraud issues by uniting telecommunications service providers to provide the scale needed for cross-authenticated call logs. Within this community, telecommunications service providers are assured that all voice traffic exchanges will be free from major types of voice fraud. Ultimately, this creates an ecosystem for telecom service providers to enable a safer calling environment for their customers, which will lead to increased overall trust in their calling services.
Nadejda Papernania, founder of AB Handshake said“We are thrilled to partner with Toku to expand the global fraud-free community to prevent fraudulent calls in the telecommunications industry, especially in the South East Asia Region. Our partnership with Toku will leverage the company’s industry expertise and market knowledge to encourage a growing community of other telecommunications players to join the community, which is an important step towards achieving a fraud-free community. »
As the Asia Pacific region is a highly fragmented telecom market, Toku is currently in discussions with other telecom players and regulators to create a framework that will provide an additional layer of validation to prevent call fraud and build trust in the system for users and businesses to interact seamlessly without worry or worry.
Toku’s business at Singapore already complies with local telecommunications regulations and licensing requirements. The InfoComm Media Development Authority (IMDA) of Singapore recognized Toku as a Tier 1 aggregator, which allows Toku to manage commercial SMS traffic. This includes anti-spoofing protocols for protected SMS.
To learn more about the Toku Customer Engagement Report 2022, access the article here or download the infographic here.
Notes to editors:
-
Survey methodology: 1,000 respondents based in Singaporeaged 18 to 65, were interviewed between March 21 and April 1, 2022. The survey recorded a mix of Singaporeans (85%) and foreigners and permanent residents living in Singapore (15%).
-
Informations about AB handshake solution: AB Handshake enables an out-of-band “handshake”, or split-channel communication that travels through the usual data stream, between the telecom carrier initiating the call and the telecom carrier terminating the call. This means that each voice call is validated by the originating and terminating telecommunications operators, which makes it impossible for any fraud based on the manipulation of traffic by intermediaries.
-
Technical information about the technology: Leveraging robust technologies such as HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) with TLS (Transport Layer Security) encryption, telcos can verify the authenticity of calls between active call registries that are managed by telcos individuals, without compromising security.
About Toku
Based at SingaporeToku is Asia Pacific only dedicated cloud communications provider helping businesses overcome the complexity of digital transformation in the region, improve their customer experience and meet the growing demand for hybrid working.
Toku has combined local expertise, in-country infrastructure and bespoke UCaaS, CPaaS and CCaaS solutions into a compelling package, enabling the region’s largest enterprises to streamline their communications. Since its inception in 2018, Toku has worked with organizations as diverse as Gojek, JCDecaux, Waitrr and foodpanda.
With Toku, moving to the cloud has never been easier. Learn more about toku.co and LinkedIn.
About the AB handshake
AB Handshake – a global call validation system – was founded by a team of professionals with over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry and expertise in building and successfully growing innovative high-tech companies. Our background in telecommunications and engineering allowed us to take an idea to prevent voice fraud through call validation and turn it into a universal solution that works for all types of networks.
Striving for fraud-free communication – that’s how we see our mission. To facilitate adoption of AB Handshake, we are building a trusted community of telecommunications service providers who share the common goal of eliminating fraud through call validation. Within this community, all voice traffic exchanges are free from major types of voice fraud. The result is a radical improvement in the customer experience and increased profitability for community members.
The effectiveness of the solution has been verified by numerous tests and by customers in the integration phase. Learn more about AB Handshake website.
SOURCEToku
