Blacklist Countries

ClearIP can be used to blacklist traffic to and from individual countries.

The full list of countries and associated country codes recognized by ClearIP is available for reference in the Country/Location Mappings page under the Configuration dropdown menu.

ClearIP typically considers each unique country code as a separate country with a few exceptions. United States phone numbers are identified by having a designated US area code. Canadian phone numbers are identified by having a designated Canadian area code. Individual Caribbean Islands, Puerto Rico, Satellite Phone Numbers, and International Freephone numbers are each considered separate countries.

Blacklist Specific Called Country

If a network does not have high international call volume, it might be advantageous to blacklist a default set of high-risk countries for all subscribers. A blacklist rule can be created for each individual country.

Any subscriber calling one of those countries will immediately be blocked with a SIP 603.

Create Blacklist Exception for Specific Subscriber

If any subscriber should be allowed to make calls to a blacklisted country, a specific exception for the subscriber and the called country can be created by adding a rule which specifies the subscriber’s calling number. In the below example, while all traffic to Cuba is blacklisted, traffic from Calling Number 14045266060 to Cuba is allowed to continue.

Disable Fraud Analysis on Domestic Calls

If ClearIP should not perform fraud analysis on domestic calls, a rule should be created in the Called Countries page for the domestic country with the Action set to Bypass Fraud Control. ClearIP will not perform fraud analysis on these calls.

Fraud analysis can be allowed on calls to specific areas within the domestic country by setting rules in the Called Numbers, Called SPIDs, or Called Locations page with the Action set to Continue. These rules will take priority over the rules in the Called Countries page.

Blacklist all International Calls

If traffic in a network needs to be restricted to prevent subscribers from making any international calls, rules can be created to blacklist all international calls outside of selected allowed countries.

In this example, fraud analysis is disabled for calls to the United States. Subscribers are allowed to make calls to Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, but those calls will be monitored by ClearIP’s fraud triggers. Any calls to a destination outside of United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico will match on the blank wildcard Called Country rule and will be immediately blocked unless there is an exception rule made.

Build SIP Reports to Check which Countries are Called

Before creating country level blacklist rules, SIP Reports can be checked to review which countries subscribers in the network tend to call. This called countries list can be compared with the complete list of countries recognized by ClearIP to build a Called Country blacklist.

To view this report, go to the SIP Reports page in the Analytics dropdown menu. By default, it will show the Called Country and Count for calls within the last hour. This report can be modified by adjusting the time period of the report to be longer (1 year for ample). The Counts by Called Country presented in this report can be used to determine whether certain Called Countries with high levels of traffic should be blacklisted.

This report can be downloaded as an Excel file by clicking the File button and Download. The list of countries used by ClearIP can be viewed in the Configuration dropdown menu on the Countries page; this list can also be downloaded as an Excel file by clicking the File button and Download.