When Finnish company Elisa and the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom received the European Crime Prevention Award for their anti-spoofing invention, Elisa’s Estonian customers wondered whether the same system was also in use here in Estonia and, if so, why so many fraudulent calls were still being made.
According to an Elisa representative, the same award-winning system is also being used by Estonia’s three largest telecommunications companies. However, Estonia’s approach has been different to Finland’s, which is why it only became possible to fully block fake numbers a month ago.
“In Finland, a solution to combat fraudulent calls was introduced as a national obligation, and all operators joined in at the same time,” said Elisa’s public relations manager Gloria Sibold.
“In Estonia, all three major operators have now added fake call detection to their international call connections. However, as the third operator, Tele2, only joined at the end of this year, it was previously more difficult to detect and prevent scam calls through cooperation,” Sibold explained.
Sibold added that despite this, the solutions have not been 100 percent effective, as calls can also be made to Estonian numbers via smaller operators who have not implemented any anti-spoofing measures.
“These six operators have been licensed by the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (TTJA), meaning they are state-approved communications service providers in Estonia. They have also been issued mobile numbers, but they do not have a real mobile network,” Sibold said.
Tele2: Fake numbers only a small part of fraud schemes
Tele2 was the last of the three major Estonian telecom operators to complete its anti-fake number system, which it did only in November.
“It took a long time because it required a technical solution between operators regarding how to build this filter system into the network – it is not a simple system. This solution has long been in use within the operators but the issue was in the inter-operator calls,” said Tele2 CEO Margus Nõlvak.
Nõlvak believes that preventing number spoofing is a very important issue that Estonia’s three major operators have now addressed. However, if the remaining six telecom operators were also to join the system, that would be a step forward.
“Then number spoofing would be completely eliminated. Right now it is not, because the other six operators are small, but criminals are smart and find loopholes,” said Nõlvak.
Nõlvak emphasized that stopping spoofing does not prevent fraudulent calls happening completely.
“Perhaps there is a general understanding that if telecommunications companies do this, there will be no more fraudulent calls, but that is not true. A clear message ought to be sent to the public: technical solutions certainly help, but will they stop fraud completely? No, they won’t. Will fraudsters constantly find new solutions? Of course they will,” Nõlvak pointed out.
When asked whether the government should require all operators to use anti-spoofing technology, as is the case in Finland, Nõlvak replied that if this were enshrined in law, it would be a step forward. However, it would not stop all scam calls, as many are made legally.
“We also have 14 telecom operators in Estonia that issue landline numbers. A lot of calls come from Estonian numbers and are made by Estonians pretending to be someone else,” said Nõlvak.
Nõlvak added that telecoms operators cooperate with the government via the Information Technology Association and also have good contacts with banks thanks to the Banking Association. Discussions have been held with banks on whether all payments should be instant or whether it ought to be be possible to reverse transfers over and above a certain amount.
“This slows down transfers.  But perhaps we should go back to a time when technological capabilities were slower and could be authenticated in several ways. This would make life safer, though inconvenient. Security is a major focus for both telecoms companies and banks, but regulation alone does not help. Telecoms companies are concerned about the security of their customers, and services have to be secure,” said Nõlvak.
Justice minister: Security measures implemented in Estonia without government coercion
Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs Liisa Pakosta (Eesti 200) said that Estonia has good and fast cooperation with its telecoms operators, and since legislative changes would have taken some time, an agreement was reached last year that operators would incorporate appropriate measures.
“Telia and Elisa got the filters up and running more quickly, and Tele2 has now also implemented these measures, so in technical terms, Estonian communications networks now have the same level of protection as Finland. However, I admit that acting on a voluntary basis created a situation whereby the readiness of market participants was not uniform at the beginning,” said Pakosta.
According to Pakosta, those receiving fraudulent calls are still the customers of the three major operators, not those of the broadband village association.
“Tele2 has now fully and thoroughly joined the defense system in place in Finland, as the last to do so, and they are probably looking for some excuse for their third place. Today, Estonia has voluntarily done what Finland did under the law,” Pakosta said.
However, Pakosta added that Estonia still wants to do more to detect scam calls. It could be possible for instance, for phone users to see notifications on their screens informing them when they are receiving a call from a pre-paid calling card.
“We are looking at what else can be done in Estonia. Currently, Estonia and Finland have the same system in place to prevent scam calls, but we are also looking at other methods that Finland has not yet implemented,” said Pakosta.
“Starting with a notification on phone calls that the call is coming from a pre-paid calling card – in the same way that you can see today that the call is coming from the police. Companies and the Prosecutor’s Office have also sat down and looked at what could be done better in terms of criminal law. Currently, the police do not respond to cases in which no damage has yet been caused. That could start happening in the new year,” Pakosta said.
Stopping spoof calls success story of cooperation between Finnish telecoms and state
Finnish public broadcaster Helsingin Sanomat wrote that previously, fraudsters had been able to mask calls in order to make them appear to be being made from a Finnish number. However, Finnish telecommunications operator Elisa developed a solution that helped to almost eliminate the phenomenon in Finland entirely.
Elisa says it has blocked nearly 26 million scam calls in Finland since 2021.
In November, Elisa and Traficom won the European Crime Prevention Award for their work to tackle scam calls.
“Based on statistics on profits from crime, those using this method stole a total of €7.1 million in Finland in 2020 and 2021. After implementing our method, the amount fell to a few thousand euros the following year,” Karri Jäkkö, director of Elisa’s Cyber Security and Service Management Center, told Helsingin Sanomat.
Elisa decided to share its idea with Traficom and other operators. The idea was that if all operators used this method, fraudulent calls made in this way would be completely eliminated.
Traficom created a national model for preventing fraudulent calls based on Elisa’s model. The regulation came into force in 2023 and requires all operators to use the same method.
Elisa has sought to secure the rights to the technical solution through the international patent application system. The company offers the solution as a commercial service to international operators. “In many countries, implementation has depended on cooperation between the local regulatory authority and operators. In Finland, this has always been our strength,” Jäkkö told Helsingin Sanomat.
Elisa has also continued its work on fraud prevention. The company recently developed a way to block fraudulent websites and has further plans to combat SMS fraud.
—
Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!