What is Short Stopping?
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What is Short Stopping?
Section titled “What is Short Stopping?”Short stopping is a telecom fraud scheme in which a rogue carrier intercepts a legitimate call and reroutes it to an expensive premium-rate destination before it reaches its intended recipient. The hacker and the rogue carrier split the revenue generated by fraudulent call charges — billed either to the end customer or to another carrier in the routing chain.
Total telecom-related fraud losses in 2021 reached $39.89 billion globally — a 28% increase from 2020 — with short stopping accounting for approximately $4 billion of that total.
How Short Stopping Works
Section titled “How Short Stopping Works”- A caller dials a legitimate number through their carrier.
- A rogue carrier on the call’s route intercepts the call before it reaches the destination.
- The call is redirected to a premium-rate number in an expensive destination country.
- Charges accumulate for every second the caller stays on the line.
- The hacker and rogue carrier share the fraudulent revenue.
Once a call has been short-stopped, the fraudster’s goal is to keep the caller on the line as long as possible.
Tactics Used to Keep Callers Engaged
Section titled “Tactics Used to Keep Callers Engaged”- Providing a false ring tone or a fake network announcement: “The person you are calling has not responded. Please try again later.”
- Playing a pre-recorded message: “Hello? I can’t hear you. Hold on…”
- Rerouting the call to a live call center where a person attempts to prolong the conversation.
Why Short Stopping Is Hard to Detect
Section titled “Why Short Stopping Is Hard to Detect”Short stopping is particularly difficult to catch because:
- The fraudulent element hides within an initially legitimate call.
- The per-call profit is small, allowing the scheme to go unnoticed.
- Detection systems that flag suspicious calls see a clean origination before the reroute happens.
Impact on Legitimate Users
Section titled “Impact on Legitimate Users”- Customers receive large bills for premium-rate international destinations they never dialed.
- Some operators preemptively block entire country numbering plans to protect against short stopping, which can prevent legitimate calls to those countries from going through.
How to Protect Yourself
Section titled “How to Protect Yourself”- Monitor your telecom bills for unexpected international charges.
- Restrict international dialing to only the countries your business legitimately contacts.
- Report anomalies to SIPSTACK Support immediately if you see unexpected call charges or destinations in your call detail records (CDRs).