The Outbound Shield service can be used to monitor outbound calls going to destination numbers previously associated with toll fraud events. The Outbound Shield Policies allow for granular control over when lookups in the Outbound Shield database should be performed and what action should be performed for an invalid or high risk number.
Setup
A lookup against the Outbound Shield service is disabled unless a policy exists that explicitly enables it. The lookup can be enabled for all calls by creating a policy on the Outbound Shield Policies page where Calling Number is blank, and Status is Enabled. Lookups can also be enabled for individual numbers or ranges by specifying a full number or a prefix in the Calling Number field when creating a new policy.
The Invalid Called Number Action and High Risk Called Number fields define what action should be taken if the called number is flagged for either case. Options include Block (block the call), Divert (divert the call to the diversion device), Indicate (replace the CNAM with “<SPAM>”), or Report (only report the status in the SIP message record).
The custom whitelist/blacklist is analyzed before the Outbound Shield blacklist. Calls whitelisted, blacklisted, or diverted by the custom lists will not have any Outbound Shield lookup performed and will not be billed for Outbound Shield lookups. The Inbound Shield lookup is performed before the Outbound Shield lookup. This means that calls whitelisted, blacklisted, or diverted by the Inbound Shield service will not have the Outbound Shield lookup performed and will not be billed for Outbound Shield lookups.
Reporting
Calls flagged by the Outbound Shield service can be viewed in the SIP Messages and SIP Reports pages under the Analytics dropdown menu.
In the SIP Messages page, manually enable columns for Invalid Called Number, High Risk Called Number, and Outbound Shield by clicking on the Columns button, searching for the relevant columns, and checking them off.
The Outbound Shield field indicates whether an Outbound Shield lookup was performed for the call. Calls with this field set to Yes will be billed for the Outbound Shield lookup.
The Invalid Called Number field indicates whether the called number was found to be invalid if an Outbound Shield lookup was performed.
The High Risk Called Number field indicates whether the called number was found to be high risk if an Outbound Shield lookup was performed.
In the SIP Reports page, there are no preconfigured reports for Invalid or High Risk Called Numbers. To manually make these reports, set the desired time period to evaluate and set the Primary Group by to Asserted Called Number. To evaluate High Risk Called Numbers, add a filter where Filter By is set to High Risk Called Number, Filter Type is set to Equals, and Filter Value is set to Yes. To evaluate Invalid Called Numbers, add a filter where Filter By is set to Invalid Called Number, Filter Type is set to Equals, and Filter Value is set to Yes. These reports will show the invalid or high risk called numbers in the network.