
Calling premium numbers
Premium rate numbers cost callers more than normal numbers. Part of that charge is paid to the service provider, which puts premium rate numbers at high risk of being exploited via traffic pumping, a type of telecom fraud in which bad actors artificially inflate traffic to their premium rate numbers. When done across countries, this type of toll fraud is known as International Revenue Share Fraud (ISRF). Most businesses never need to call premium rate numbers, so by default Plivo blocks calls to all phone numbers with high-risk prefixes as a way to prevent unwanted charges. Plivo has identified thousands of premium rate and high-risk prefixes. You can export a list of these prefixes from the Voice > Geo Permissions > High-Risk Permissions screen of the Plivo console. Plivo regularly updates this list based on factors such as the rates associated with the premium numbers, call patterns, and third-party trends.
Overriding preferences for specific subaccounts
Default preferences apply to all calls initiated from the main account and all subaccounts, but you can override geo permissions at the subaccount level. To specify preferences for a subaccount, select the subaccount from the Account drop-down, enter your preferences, and click Save Changes.
Geo permissions disabled by Plivo
Plivo analyzes call trends and disables geo permissions when we discover suspicious activity toward any country. You might see a “Disabled by Plivo” tag for a country or a message saying “Please contact Plivo support to re-enable geo permissions for any country that’s disabled below.” This indicates that Plivo has identified suspicious activity and disabled the geo permissions to avoid calls getting placed from your account to unknown numbers and destinations. To unblock geo permissions in such instances, contact Plivo support.