Brian McMahon, U.S. Cellular

Back in the day, roaming fraud was the worst crime anyone could perpetrate against a wireless network. Today's criminals have more tricks up their sleeves, however, and as U.S Cellular prepares to roll out 3G technology, Brian McMahon is much more meticulous in preparing the network against attack.

“Fraud is not stagnant — it is dynamic,” said McMahon, the carrier's director of intercarrier services and supervisor of fraud prevention. “It has evolved from simple roamer fraud to tumbling fraud, cloning, and now identity theft and subscription fraud.”

McMahon has been fighting fraud since 1987, when he began selling fraud solutions to the wireless industry for GTE Telecommunication Services Inc., now TSI. He joined U.S. Cellular in 1996 when the firm was steeped in fraud, losing about $2.3 million a month. The problem may not have vanished since then, but carriers have taken a stronger stance to combat it.

Education has become an important part of the carrier's fraud prevention tactics. “We are heavily reliant on our people's power to identify theft,” McMahon said. Field reps can be instrumental in detecting fraud during the activation process, but it is the technology that staves off those that make it past the front line. RF fingerprinting was deployed for the analog network, but U.S. Cellular is becoming more reliant on its profiling system as it transitions to an all-digital network. The carrier currently is deploying authentication technology across its entire network, which will be completed by Q1 2003.

It's hard to predict where fraud will pop up once 3G networks are rolled out, which leads McMahon to believe that the biggest challenges are yet to come. “In 3G, it remains to be seen what fraud could look like,” he said. “You never can discount what people will do to steal service from you.”