Abstract: A generic anomaly detection engine is described which provides neural network technology to process information such as call detail records and detect anomalies in the information, such as mobile phone fraud. Information from call detail records is pre-processed to form signatures which represent the calling behavior of a subscriber. These signatures are formed in one of a plurality of predetermined formats. The generic anomaly detection engine is instantiated in order to create an anomaly detector which is suitable for a particular situation and during the instantiation process the topology of the neural network components is automatically adjusted to fit the required situation. The topology is adjusted to according to the format of the signatures.