Cellular fraud, or cell fraud, is the unauthorized use, tampering or manipulation of a cellular phone or service. Currently, the primary type of cell fraud is subscriber fraud. The cellular industry estimates that carriers lose more than $150 million per year due to subscriber fraud. In addition, the FCC offers guidelines to help protect potential investors in wireless telecommunications services from being defrauded by unscrupulous promoters. Recently there has been a surge in the number of reported cases of fraud in telecommunications services such as Paging, Specialized Mobile Radio, Wireless Cable, Interactive Video and Data Services, and Cellular Radio Telephone (underserved areas).
