Combating Mobile Money Vishing: A Simulation Using Asterisk and STIR/SHAKEN Protocol

This paper addresses the growing challenge of vishing (voice phishing) fraud in mobile financial services (MFS) across emerging markets, where fraudsters impersonate trusted entities to steal sensitive information from users. With mobile money operators facing average annual losses of USD 1.06 per user and traditional awareness campaigns showing limited effectiveness, especially among low-literacy populations, we propose a technical solution leveraging the STIR/SHAKEN framework for caller authentication. Using Asterisk and secsipidx, we implement and evaluate a system capable of authenticating callers and warning recipients of potential vishing attempts. Our results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of this approach in combating fraudulent calls and phone number spoofing, offering a promising solution for protecting vulnerable MFS users.