Do you regularly receive calls from numbers belonging to Voxbone? Here’s what you need to know about this very particular telephone operator, whose services are hijacked by unscrupulous companies…
Telephone scams are not new, but with the omnipresence of smartphones in our lives, they have unfortunately become more and more numerous and sophisticated. We are all regularly confronted with unscrupulous canvassers, unwanted calls, requests that turn into harassment, or even attempts at formal fraud.
In fact, scammers of all kinds lack neither the resources nor the imagination to take advantage of modern technological tools in order to lull our vigilance and circumvent the protection systems in place. If the competent authorities regularly strengthen the rules supposed to protect consumers and users, as with the new restrictions on cold calling, the real crooks always find new ways to circumvent these barriers. And to do this, some do not hesitate to rely on the services of large technology companies, which are also fully compliant with the law.
This is what seems to be happening to Voxbone, a well-established player in the world of business telephony via the Internet. On our forum, many users regularly report incessant calls or fraudulent messages from apparently legitimate numbers, with national geographic codes (the famous 01, 02, 03, etc.), and all belonging to Voxbone. What is this company? ,What are its activities? And are there ways to report this abuse to stop it?
What is Voxbone?
Voxbone is a telecommunications company, whose head office is located in Brussels, Belgium. Since November 2020, it has been entirely owned by Bandwidth, an American company based in North Carolina, of which it has become a subsidiary. Beyond the purely economic aspect, this repurchase has the consequence of creating initial confusion, the official Voxbone website having become an empty shell with all links to the Bandwidth web page, making it difficult to correctly identify the company on the Internet.
In the world of electronic communications, Voxbone is a somewhat special player. Unlike traditional operators like Orange, Bouygues, SFR or Free, it does not target individuals directly, but offers telecommunications services to businesses through the cloud, using technology Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP, or Voice over IP in French), which allows voice communications (and therefore telephone calls) to be transmitted via the Internet network rather than via telephone networks. As an individual, there is therefore little chance that you will deal directly with this company, and yet it is likely that some of your calls or text messages will go through its network at one time or another.
Voxbone has a vast private IP network that covers more than 65 countries, through which the company can route communications to a large number of destinations. Traditional telecommunications operators, such as Orange for example, therefore call on Voxbone to extend the reach of their network for their customers, without having to support heavy investments in infrastructure in the targeted countries.
Another advantage of Voxbone is to offer the portability of existing local numbers from another operator to its own network. Thus, a foreign company that wishes to approach new customers or offer a telephone assistance service in a given country can acquire telephone numbers with national codes, such as “01” or “04” in France. .
Basically, calls or messages sent by a company are first transmitted to Voxbone’s servers, which then direct them through its own private network to the networks of traditional operators, who finally deliver them to the final recipients. The number that is then displayed for the recipient of the call or message is not that of the original company, but that assigned by Voxbone to its customer.
The company therefore acts as an intermediary between the sender and receiver of a communication, and thus hides the real origin of the call or message from the recipient. It is therefore easy to understand why such a service is very popular with scammers of all kinds. Thanks to local number portability, these malicious actors can obtain a valid telephone identity, which more easily slips through the cracks of telecommunications operators. It is therefore not Voxbone which is the origin of the fraudulent call, but one of its customers who is making misused and illegal use of the operator’s network.
Voxbone is obviously not the only company offering IP telephony services, but its extensive network, numerous available local number ranges and the powerful call automation IT tools they offer, appear to be a success particularly with unscrupulous entrepreneurs.
What is Voxbone doing to fight against scams?
The company seems well aware that its products and services constitute a boon for telephone scam systems of all kinds. The firm publishes on its site a Acceptable Use Policy (Acceptable Use Policy or AUP in English), which places particular emphasis on the prohibited uses of its services:”Customers may not use the Voxbone Network or Services in any manner that: (a) violates any law, regulation, treaty, tariff or applicable agreement (b) violates the acceptable use policies of any network, installation or service accessible via the Services. ; (c) infringes the intellectual property rights of Voxbone or others; (d) violates the privacy of others; or (e) involves deceptive or fraudulent marketing practices“, we can read in paragraph 3.1.1 of its usage policy.
In this document, the company also explains that it actively monitors traffic on its network, in order to try to identify suspicious activities, and indicates that it reserves the right to immediately terminate any use that violates the clauses of its Acceptable Use Policy. It also specifies that it cooperates with local and government authorities, by transmitting the information necessary to identify offenders in the context of civil or criminal proceedings. Serious and reassuring legal clauses, but the practical implementation and execution times of which remain to be verified.
Furthermore, the company takes care to protect itself against any lawsuit against it, by clearly writing in its AUP that it cannot be held responsible for the use made of its services by its customers: “Under no circumstances will Voxbone be liable to its customers or any other third party for any injury or loss resulting from inaccurate, inappropriate, offensive or illegal use of the Services or for any direct, indirect, special or consequential damages arising from claims alleging that a Customer has engaged in conduct that violates this AUP”, specifies the company in another section.
If you have been the victim of a scam or telephone scam that has passed through the Voxbone network and has caused you harm, you will need to contact the competent local authorities, who are the only ones able to request information from the company in the context of a complaint.
Voxbone, however, seems to be proactive in hunting down abusive and malicious uses of its network. In its conditions of use, the company indicates an email address to which it is possible to report activities that are manifestly illegal or do not comply with the policy for the use of its services. In the event of unwanted or recurring calls or which appear to be attempts at fraud, you can send a written message by email to the address [email protected]
On the website of Bandwidth, Voxbone’s parent company, there is also a page specifically dedicated to reporting unwanted calls or messages that pass through the company’s network. The page provides some brief explanations, unfortunately only in English, on the information to be transmitted when reporting, such as the incriminated telephone number, dates and times of calls or even screenshots of messages received. All this information should be sent by email to [email protected]