Are you having trouble with calls getting picked up?

It's a difficult thing to get people to pick up a call nowadays as there are so many spam calls. Here's some tips on how best to get a call connect.
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• Don't call using an anonymous number. No one picks these calls up.
• Check your number online to see if it's deemed suspicious or spam. You can check it with these URLs here - https://www.donotcall.gov.au/consumers/check-your-numbers/ or https://spamcalls.net/en/
•  If your number is already there, chances are that's why people are not picking your calls up
• Use a mobile number to call. If your provider allows it, use a mobile number to call out as. Typically, the provider needs a verification for that you own that number before they allow you to do so. Check out our virtual mobile number product out for more information.
• You can always follow up with an SMS after your call to identify who called to the user.
• Call during hours which the person will typically pick up. Use common sense, no one is going to pick up the call if it is before 9 or after 5 for example.
• Don't use a dialer which beeps before connecting. That's a big giveaway that you're calling from a dialer = you're calling from a call center.
• Your call center team needs to properly speak English. Don't bother if they have a strong accent from elsewhere. That's reality in Australia.

Team up with the correct call center or voip provider and they can be a good support for your business.

​Select Generic Country, Generic VOPI Provider and enter the Main Trunk Number provided.

​Enter the name of the trunk. This can be anything.
For the server, provide the server name provided. (e.g. xxx.thevoip.city)
Enter the provided number of Simultaneous calls.

​You need a VOIP firewall which works with VOIP traffic and phones. A typical firewall will not know a VOIP service and will probably block VOIP protocols randomly. Some might deem it as a DOS attack due to the streaming nature of the VOIP packets. Lock your firewall down to only traffic between the VOIP service an the VOIP server so you don't get random REGISTERs to your VOIP service. Ask if you can get a VPN connection to the voip service. If you have multiple sites, you can also get a virtual firewall service to cover your servers.

The ultimate idea is to hide your server from the Internet world. Once it's hidden, the hackers will not be able to try hacking it. Some points (though not exhaustive) for setting it up.

1. Enable ICMP drops in your Firewall - drop all pings to your server
2. Change the standard 5060 port to something else
3. Lock down source to the voip providers you have signed on. 
4. Deploy a VPN
5. Get a proper secure VOIP Phone System. Open source ones like Asterisk, Free PBX is prone to attacks unless properly configured and managed.
6. Deploy Fail2Ban - this is something which a network administrator will be able to do. It bans certain traffic when it detects authentication fails to the server.
7. Don't allow access to your phones via the internet. 

Your phone system needs to be able to limit the international calls by enabling prefix match. So only allow +61 calls etc. However, your VOIP provider should be able to stop it at their premises. Most providers do allow any calls to go out and only stops it after damage has already been done to a certain extent. 

And finally, always set a pre-determined dollar amount of how much you will spend a day. This way, the VOIP provider will be able to stop all calls when it hits that threshold.

In summary, there are many ways to stop Toll Fraud and Hackers. Much of it is network related but it also depends highly on the VOIP provider.