Outbound voice geo permissions
Plivo can protect your account from fraud by restricting the set of countries your account can call. If, for example, you intend to place calls to numbers in North America only, you can disable call routes to all other continents and thereby reduce the risk of fraud. Similarly, if you’re running an inbound call center, or your use case doesn’t involve outbound calling to PSTN numbers, you can block outbound routes to all countries as a precautionary measure.
To manage geo permissions, navigate to Voice > Geo Permissions on the Plivo console.
Here you’ll see a list of all countries. You can filter the list by selecting specific geographic regions or countries.
Geo permission configurations are applied immediately to all calls initiated via Plivo APIs and Dial XML.
API calls to blocked countries are rejected with HTTP response code 403 and the error message “Calls to this destination country are barred.”
Calls initiated with Dial XML are dropped automatically. The hangup cause in the Call Detail Report for such calls is set to “Destination Country Barred” (Code 2030). See our list of hangup causes.
Calling premium numbers
Premium rate numbers cost callers more than normal numbers. Part of that charge is paid to the service provider, which puts premium rate numbers at high risk of being exploited via traffic pumping, a type of telecom fraud in which bad actors artificially inflate traffic to their premium rate numbers. When done across countries, this type of toll fraud is known as International Revenue Share Fraud (ISRF).
Most businesses never need to call premium rate numbers, so by default Plivo blocks calls to all phone numbers with high-risk prefixes as a way to prevent unwanted charges.
Plivo has identified thousands of premium rate and high-risk prefixes. You can export a list of these prefixes from the Voice > Geo Permissions > High-Risk Permissions screen of the Plivo console. Plivo regularly updates this list based on factors such as the rates associated with the premium numbers, call patterns, and third-party trends.
If you have a legitimate need to make calls to premium rate or high-risk numbers, you can request activation of high-risk permissions for your account or a particular subaccount by contacting our support team and providing them with details of your use case.
Plivo rejects API calls to blocked prefixes with an HTTP response code 403 and the error message “Calls to this destination number are barred.”
Calls to blocked prefixes initiated with the Dial XML element are automatically dropped. The Call Detail Record for such calls indicates the hangup cause as “Destination Number Barred (Code 2040).”
Overriding preferences for specific subaccounts
Default preferences apply to all calls initiated from the main account and all subaccounts, but you can override geo permissions at the subaccount level.
To specify preferences for a subaccount, select the subaccount from the Account drop-down, enter your preferences, and click Save Changes.
For more information, see our an article in our support portal.
Geo permissions disabled by Plivo
Plivo analyzes call trends and disables geo permissions when we discover suspicious activity toward any country. You might see a “Disabled by Plivo” tag for a country or a message saying “Please contact Plivo support to re-enable geo permissions for any country that’s disabled below.” This indicates that Plivo has identified suspicious activity and disabled the geo permissions to avoid calls getting placed from your account to unknown numbers and destinations.
To unblock geo permissions in such instances, contact Plivo support.
These response codes will show in your call detail report if geo permissions are disabled:
SIP Response Code: 403 - Barred Country; Zentrunk Hangup Code: 4650 Description: The number has been blocked in geo permissions settings. Any calls made to this number belong to a specific country or number group will not go through since it has been barred.