RAG and i3forum Join Forces Against Wholesale Fraud

A joint announcement by i3forum and the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG) confirms RAG is now a partner member of i3forum and a participant in their anti-fraud workstream. i3forum’s Fight Against Fraud group, chaired by Katia Gonzalez Gutierrez, Head of Fraud Prevention at BICS, has established themselves as leading proponents of necessary change to tackle wholesale voice fraud. RAG will engage with the Fight Against Fraud group with a view to promoting their guidance to an extended audience.

Dating back to 2003, RAG’s networking events were originally focused on assurance managers employed by UK retail telcos, whilst i3forum was formed in 2007 so international carriers and vendors could meet to discuss innovation and transformation for the wholesale industry. Although the two associations have different origins, Philippe Millet, Chairman of i3forum, observed how they have a similar outlook.

RAG shares our not-for-profit approach and is a great fit for our organisation. We look forward to working together to fight fraud across our industry.

The anti-fraud work of i3forum has been led by Katia Gonzalez Gutierrez since 2011. This represents a tremendous investment of time and energy, and Katia deserves praise for the service she has given to the telecoms industry and ultimately to its customers. Consistent leadership has helped drive strategic improvements in how telcos address fraud, with Katia and her colleagues at BICS championing the use of fraud prevention as a differentiator in the highly competitive market for international wholesale voice traffic. This encouraged numerous Tier 1 networks to sign up to the Global Leaders Forum (GLF) Code of Conduct, which was jointly developed with i3forum, and which sets expectations for how carriers should help each other combat fraud.

The full text of the announcement can be found on both the RAG and i3forum websites.

Eric Priezkalns
Eric Priezkalns
Eric is the Editor of Commsrisk. Look here for more about the history of Commsrisk and the role played by Eric.

Eric is also the Chief Executive of the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), a global association of professionals working in risk management and business assurance for communications providers.

Previously Eric was Director of Risk Management for Qatar Telecom and he has worked with Cable & Wireless, T‑Mobile, Sky, Worldcom and other telcos. He was lead author of Revenue Assurance: Expert Opinions for Communications Providers, published by CRC Press. He is a qualified chartered accountant, with degrees in information systems, and in mathematics and philosophy.