Risk: Low
Stories are surfacing of rogue VoIP providers, who secretly route calls through third parties. Two US hackers, Edwin Andres Pena and Robert Moore, were recently charged with making $1 million over 18 months by hacking into VoIP providers' systems and routing calls through their lines. They set themselves up as VoIP providers, charging customers but paying nothing for call routing. Pena was caught at the beginning of June, after having sold over 10 million minutes to 'customers'. Pena allegedly paid $20,000 to Moore, who scanned VoIP providers for security holes by brute force attacks.
Pena is said to have spent his money on luxury cars, property and a boat, and now faces up to 25 years in jail, as well as possible fines of $500,000.
It's thought that Pena was able to operate because VoIP rerouting doesn't require authorisation. With a large number of VoIP programs operating unencrypted, it is widely expected that VoIP related crimes will become more and more popular.