Measures against unauthorized and irregular traffic for fraudulent purposes

El Royal Decree 381/2015, of 14 May, laying down measures against unauthorised traffic and illegal traffic for fraudulent purposes in electronic communications, lays down measures to prevent and prevent:

• Unauthorized traffic that uses unauthorized numbering, i.e., traffic that has origin or destination in public numbering resources that have not been attributed, enabled or assigned.
• Non-permitted traffic that makes improper use of numbering, that is, certain types of traffic that have origin or destination in public numbering resources that have been assigned and make use contrary to the provisions of the corresponding provisions of attribution, habilitation or application.
• Irregular traffic for fraudulent purposes, that is, traffic that is generated, induced or artificially prolonged in order to obtain profit, directly or indirectly, from the payment billing chain in the provision of publicly available electronic communications services.

The Royal Decree aims to protect the integrity and security of electronic communications networks and services, ensure quality in the provision of such services and guarantee the rights of telecommunications users. It also aims to reduce the economic damage suffered by operators.

In particular, the following measures are established:

• Operators will have to block at the interconnection points the unauthorized traffic using unauthorized numbering.
• Operators are enabled to withhold payments on interconnection and temporarily block traffic, when they detect unauthorized traffic that misuses numbering or irregular traffic for fraudulent purposes, and must make appropriate notifications to the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures and to the operators affected by such traffic.
• Monitoring mechanisms are established to ensure that payments are withheld and traffic blocks are made only if there are sufficient indications of fraudulent practices, with the operator performing retention or blocking being liable for possible claims by the affected numbering holders.
• Coordination between operators is guaranteed, who will include in their interconnection agreements the procedures applied for withholding payments and blocking traffic, and will inform affected operators with whom they have a contractual relationship when they apply these procedures immediately.
• In addition, the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures may require the application of measures to block the transmission of traffic and to withhold payments for certain types of traffic.

Notifications about blocking and/or withholding payments

Notifications that operators who have obtained authorisation for the use of the notified criteria to identify the different types of unauthorised traffic that misuses numbering or irregular traffic for fraudulent purposes must send to the State Secretariat for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures when making payment withholding or blocking traffic transmission shall comply with the following instructions:

General instructions for sending notifications [PDF] [134.98 kB]