RAG RAFM Survey 2020

The RAG Revenue Assurance and Fraud Management Survey 2020 was conducted during September and October, garnering 175 responses from professionals working in the revenue assurance and fraud management functions of communications providers around the world. Extrapolating from the survey findings leads to the conclusion that the total unrealized value of RAFM was worth USD142bn this year.


 

Video Summary

This six-minute video presents some of the key findings from the survey.


 

Report of the Survey Findings

The survey report can be read below or downloaded from here. You are permitted to use and share the report on condition that you give credit to RAG, as per the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence.


 

Ranked Table of the Value of Each Category of Leakage

Rank Leakage Category Value in Billions of US Dollars
1 Bad debt 14.16
2 Subscription and identity fraud 8.15
3 Billing and collection errors 7.26
4 Bypass fraud including simboxing 6.86
5 Rating and tariff errors 6.36
6 Usage errors 6.17
7 International revenue share fraud (IRSF) 5.63
8 Subscription fee errors 5.29
9 Commissions fraud 5.23
10 Handset crime 3.95
11 Network and system outages 3.24
12 Products with negative margins 3.05
13 Artificial inflation of traffic 2.53
14 Excess operating costs 2.33
15 Theft of network assets and equipment 2.15
16 Stranded assets and underused equipment 1.8
17 Messaging fraud 1.62
18 Compensating customers for wangiri 1.31
19 Compensating customers for account takeover including SIM swaps 1.16
20 Compensating customers for PBX hacking 1.14
21 Customers sharing services with non-customers (e.g. passwords for services) 1.13
22 Piracy of digital content 0.87
23 Compensating customers for mobile money fraud 0.83
24 Denial of service attacks 0.74
25 Tax fraud 0.67


 

Raw Data

You can see and download the raw data submitted by survey respondents by clicking on the link below, which opens a new window using Google Sheets. The data is complete apart from some small changes to maintain the anonymity of respondents. Five responses were excluded from calculations because they came from businesses that are not communications providers, but those answers are still included in the data sheet. You are permitted to use and share the data so long as you give credit to RAG, as per the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence.

RAG RAFM 2020 Survey Raw Data


 

Downloadable Infographics

You may download and use any of the following graphics on condition that you credit RAG and respect the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence. Click on the image to open the full-sized version


 

Jpeg of the Triple Triangle of Leakage


 

Jpeg of Non Fraud Leakage by Category


 

Jpeg of Fraud Leakage by Category


 

Jpeg of Biggest Challenges to Success


 

Jpeg of Use of Machine Learning


 

Jpeg of Fraud losses Providers vs Customers


 

Jpeg of FM vs RA Leakages to Providers


 

Jpeg of Business Models Reported by Survey Respondents


 

Jpeg of Functional Responsibilities by Survey Respondents


 

Jpeg of Biggest Challenges to Success


 

Jpeg of Use of Machine Learning


 

Jpeg of Survey Positive Responses by Loss Category


 

Jpeg of Overlap between RA and FM Functions


 

Jpeg of Overlap for Threat Mitigation Functions


 

Jpeg of Overlap for Assurance Functions


 

The Questionnaire Panel

The questions asked by the survey were selected by an international group of experts in revenue assurance and fraud management. They are:

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