VoIP service providers need to improve their security:

A Miami businessman helped by a professional hacker penetrated the networks of Internet phone providers to connect hundreds of thousands of free calls, federal prosecutors alleged Wednesday.

After obtaining free access to the networks, Edwin Andres Pena charged customers more than $1 million to route calls for them, according to FBI complaints made public with Pena’s arrest in Florida.

Pena paid $20,000 to hacker Robert Moore, of Spokane, Wash., according to court papers.

Pena, 23, who had a court appearance Wednesday in Miami, could not be reached for comment. Moore, 22, was to surrender to federal agents in Spokane. A message left at his address was not immediately returned. The names of their lawyers were not yet known.

At least 15 Internet phone companies were victimized, with one suffering as much as $300,000 in lost fees, prosecutors said.

Pena allegedly was able to secretly route 500,000 calls through a Newark-based provider identified in the complaint as "N.T.P.," which appears to be Net2Phone. Messages seeking comment from the company, and its corporate parent, IDT Corp., were not immediately returned Wednesday.

Authorities said that to hide profits from his scheme, which ran from November 2004 to May 2006, Pena bought real estate, three luxury vehicles and a 40-foot motorboat. On Wednesday, federal agents seized one of the cars, a customized 2004 BMW M3.

Pena operated two telecommunications companies, Fortes Telecom Inc. and Miami Tech & Consulting Inc., according to federal prosecutors. The companies, acting as wholesalers, sold more than 10 million minutes of Internet telephone service for as little as 0.4 cents a minute.