Edinburgh-based Commsworld Chief Exec' Ricky Nicol has called on the industry to stop profiting from customers who have fallen victim to toll fraud attacks.
Nicol describes the behaviour of telcos making money from the misfortune of end users as 'alarming'.
"I find it extremely difficult to comprehend that any carrier firm will look to make an opportunistic buck on the back of crime carried out on their customers, and I have heard of numerous examples where we are not talking about a small profit," he said.
"Severe attacks have the potential to put firms out of business, therefore it's essential their service providers do all they can to prevent that.
"I would urge all business to take action to prevent toll fraud and to check that their service provider would work on a non-profit rate should they be victim of an attack."
"Toll fraud is similar to computer viruses. It's vital that people and businesses protect themselves by installing anti-virus software, but despite the best efforts of firms like Amazon and Apple, and even the Government, the hackers will keep finding new ways to attack.
"We can prevent the majority of toll-fraud attacks from being successful and we certainly wouldn't look to profit from our customers when a criminal act has been clearly carried out on them, indeed we would as a matter of course and policy credit back any elements of profit (not cost) we would make.
"However, the same could not be said of some of the national carriers. Seemingly it is legally acceptable to profit in this way, but it is surely morally unacceptable to willingly choose to make profit from customers who have had a criminal act carried out on them."