PARAMUS, N.J.-AT&T Wireless Services Inc. said it reduced wireless telephone fraud in metropolitan New York City by 90 percent so far this year, using its authentication system and Corsair Communications Inc.’s PhonePrint radio frequency fingerprinting system.
The company also announced it has reduced the lifespan of a cloned telephone to three days from its previous lifespan of 35 to 40 days.
Authentication, launched in May, automatically sends a complicated series of encoded passwords to validate customers each time they use their wireless phone. The passwords are known only to the phone and the network, and are difficult to break, the company said.
AT&T said it wants tougher laws addressing sophisticated forms of cellular fraud. The company recently encouraged New York legislators to enact a law adding new cellular-specific crimes to the forgery offenses used in wireless fraud prosecutions.
“AT&T Wireless has been successful in dramatically reducing fraud with the deployment of leading edge technologies and collaborative legislative and law enforcement efforts aimed at deterring wireless thieves,” said Dennis O’Connell, president of AT&T Wireless Services’ northeast region. “This multifaceted approach to fighting fraud has enabled us to detect, prevent and resolve six out of seven fraudulent uses of our customers’ phone numbers prior to our customers realizing and being inconvenienced.
