Lots of VoIP, telecom and tech news coming out of ITEXPO East 2012 in Miami, FL, this week, which officially kicked off yesterday.

Today, carrier-class fraud protection specialists Humbug Labs launched the latest in their fraud protection solution, Silver Hawk 3.0, which prevents a fraudulent call before it’s even made.

According to the release, users can configure their PBX (News - Alert) to block unwanted calls to fraudulent destinations using a criteria based on opt-in features, like a black list, naming specific countries, numbers and ranges, business hours and holidays. By setting the parameters before any calls are made, calls are pre-authorized and it eliminates fraudulent calls.

Businesses should be aware of hackers that will try to use their telephone and voicemail systems to place toll calls without the knowledge or permission of the business. Telephone fraud can cost thousands of dollars in toll calls to off shore locations.

“The prevention service alone would have been enough to warrant a new version, but the team has completely enhanced the reporting system to enable custom reports unlike anything available in the market. Additionally, Silver Hawk enables companies to assign phones to departments for departmental or campaign level reporting. With Humbug Pro, carrier-class tools and Telecom Fraud Prevention is now more accessible and affordable for businesses of all sizes,” said Eric Klein, VP Sales and Marketing at Humbug Telecom Labs in the release.

One of Humbug’s customers, Fonality (News - Alert), has been using Humbug since 2010 to prevent fraud.

“Humbug offers a reliable, cost-effective service and we are excited about the new release. The reporting functionality, which has potential to be used across the organization, is particularly beneficial. Plus, the new proactive fraud prevention adds powerful features to their core product,” said Rahim Jina, Head of Information Security at Fonality.

Humbug will take the mic at ITEXPO (News - Alert) East 2012 in Miami, Fla., taking place Jan. 31 to Feb. 3, for a session with Eric Klein, Humbug’s VP of Sales titled “What Cloud Means for Fraud Prevention.”

The session, part of the Cloud Communications Expo at ITEXPO, will discuss real examples of telecom fraud and the steps businesses should take to protect themselves from fraudulent activity and hacking as they receive their communications services from cloud and hosted providers.

On Thurs. Feb 2nd at 1 pm, Nir Simionovich CEO and Chief Architect at Humbug, will be presenting “Socializing Telephony Fraud” as part of Asterisk World.