How to Not Get a Telephone Bill for $100,000

In the age of interconnectedness, never a day passes without some form of malice and mischief going on over the wires. It can get so out of hand that an Albany, NY company which provides telecommunications and equipment is suing three of its customers over “phone charges gone wild” — to the tune of $350,000.

There are things every business large and small can do to ensure such a thing never happens to them. Some are common sense, others are subtle or hidden within a phone system (or isn’t included in a budget system). Here are a few simple things you can do to make sure you never get a phone bill for $100,000.

1. Sign up with a carrier that offers unlimited local and domestic long distance calling plans.
2. Disable international calling with your carrier and in your phone system.
3. If you need to make international calls, only turn it on for the extensions that will make international calls.
4. Use the access code feature of your phone system to require a PIN code to be entered to make international calls; change the code when employees turn over.
5. Turn off the feature that allows users to make outbound calls from their voice mailboxes; hackers guess mailbox passwords and then make outbound calls.
6. Use the restricted calling feature of your phone system to disable outbound calling according to a schedule. Are you closed in the evening and weekends? Then have your phone system disable outbound calls during those times. That is when hackers in far-flung countries are busy racking up charges on your phone bill.