Lex Wilkinson, Rural Cellular

Lex Wilkinson has spent the past 12 years chasing pennies — first as a consultant with Professional Security Bureau working fraud cases, and now as Rural Cellular's vice president of intercarrier services and business security. Wilkinson has scoured the edges of the legitimate market, plugging holes in the areas where carriers are losing revenue, either through outright fraud or honest technical glitches.

In most cases it's a matter of just a few cents. But to bastardize the famous Everett Dirksen quote, a penny here and a penny there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money.

“Business security is a fancy word for everything related to business operations that has the potential for loss,” Wilkinson said.

Today, that generally takes the form of tracking the 100-plus roaming agreements Rural Cellular has with other carriers, making up about 25% of the company's revenue.

“We have a lot of vacation destination locations, so we have a lot more out-collect than our customers going other places,” he said.

But like the bad penny that keeps showing up, fraud — which the industry had thought it had licked — just won't leave Wilkinson's life. The post-Sept. 11 environment has kicked fraud up the priority list.

“People committed fraud because they wanted to save money,” he said. “We took away the money part of it by offering really low rates, and we got rid of the anonymous part of it by offering prepaid. Fraud has dropped off significantly, but the Sept. 11 issues have brought a new wrinkle.”