The Contact Center’s Guide to Account Risk
Fraud Risk Is A Cross Channel Challenge
All organizations are prone to fraud risks. Large frauds could lead to the downfall of entire organizations, massive losses, and erosion of confidence in an organization’s brand. Vigilant handling of fraud cases within an organization assures the public of the organization’s attitude toward fraud risks and about the organization’s fraud risk tolerance.
Understanding how fraud schemes work helps to decide how an organization can implement effective prevention strategies. Organizations that do not actively seek out fraudulent activity are more likely to experience fraud for much longer and at a much higher cost than those utilizing active detection and prevention methods.
Most enterprises today are restricted to a siloed view of fraud by channel. Fraudsters committing online fraud, mobile fraud, card fraud, and account takeovers (ATOs) are going to use any tool they can to make a withdrawal successful, and if possible, repeat the process.
of fraudulent transactions start with or include a call into an interactive voice response (IVR). Additionally, fraudsters looking to take over accounts make an average of five calls into an organization before attempting a transaction.
Analyzing calls for risk is great to discern if the caller isn’t genuine. However, if an automatic number identification (ANI) is secure, yet connected to another risky ANI or high risk account, looking at the discrete call risk will not help the fraud team connect the dots. If fraudsters operate within a criminal ring, call centers could miss that if the focus is only on the call risk. But looking at risk by account can begin to tell us which account may be the target of fraudulent behavior. Account risk focuses not only on who is making calls, but also what accounts the suspected callers are interested in.
Fighting Fraud on Multiple Fronts
Fraudsters may access a target account through many channels, which channel they use to extract the money after account takeover is nearly arbitrary. With so many channels dedicated to providing customers access where and when they need it fraudsters use the accessibility to their advantage. Tracking cross channel behavior can be a challenge, so the ability to go beyond just real-time fraud prevention, and look at accounts instead of a channel to see “who” the fraudsters are targeting and not just the how. This also helps counter any false negatives from real time controls, reducing risk of a real-time control failing to stop fraud in the moment.
The 2021 Voice Intelligence Report
Discover How Fraudsters Got Away with Millions of Dollars Since the Pandemic
Real-time vs Through Time
Fraudsters may access a target account through many channels, which channel they use to extract the money after account takeover is nearly arbitrary. With so many channels dedicated to providing customers access where and when they need it fraudsters use the accessibility to their advantage. Tracking cross channel behavior can be a challenge, so the ability to go beyond just real-time fraud prevention, and look at accounts instead of a channel to see “who” the fraudsters are targeting and not just the how. This also helps counter any false negatives from real time controls, reducing risk of a real-time control failing to stop fraud in the moment.
Connections via Pindrop® Trace
If the IVR activity is analyzed in regard to connections between calls and accounts across time, this results in an accurate assessment of which accounts might be under surveillance by a fraudster, if someone is account mining, or spoofing their number to appear as a legitimate customer. These activities and more artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms lead to a risk score based on the identity claim or account number using Trace technology. Pindrop® Trace uses graph analytics to analyze large sets of data across calls and accounts to identify complex patterns of call risk and account risk and develop a risk score for the account. That score can be shared with other channels such as mobile, online, in-person, or across other lines of business to focus precious agent time with increased efficacy.
A broader view of an enterprise’s fraud across multiple channels can help to identify fraud that moves between channels. Connecting graph analytics of the IVR with the existing data and policies helps make more accurate predictions about risk, and ultimately catch an increasing number of fraud attempts.
A Deeper Look at Account Risk Operationalization
Once organizations can actively monitor account risk, how they leverage and integrate the data can serve multiple purposes in the fight against fraud. Leverage intelligence on account risk varies slightly from real time risk scores on calls, allowing for greater flexibility and more utility of the data you already have. Account risk can provide protection in multiple ways.
First, there is protection for the IVR and contact center, using account risk to automate call flows, reducing access to accounts that are at-risk and routing calls directly to an informed specialist. Secondly,account risk can be using for immediate intelligence for investigations, leverage for step-up and step-down guidance in real-time for call center agents. Third, account risk can be used to mark and monitor over time helping detect attack patterns and examines new connections made between calls and accounts all inside the IVR.
How Can Organizations Use Account Risk to Fight Fraud
Call centers should consume account risk feedback from outside of the phone channel (online, mobile), outside of the call center (branches, kiosks) and even from other risk systems and correlate it with the call risk to provide a comprehensive picture of suspicious activity. Call risk and account level feedback can also be combined with other risk systems to create account risk alerts for future monitoring.
Taking an account centric approach takes the fight against fraud to another “front”. Account risk allows you to see which accounts are at risk, building on the knowledge of fraudsters using the phone channel to extract information and take over accounts.
Leveraging account risk can help add an additional dimension of fraud detection and since it can be used to determine which account fraudsters might attack next, it truely becomes fraud prevention. Providing 30-60 days advanced notice on accounts that might be under surveillance by fraudsters, can help reduce the likelyhood of an account takeover before a fraudster moves any money. Account risk can be use to help gain a needed edge against fraud protection and help go beyond single channel monitoring and help protect customer accounts from fraud and your team from case work, remediation, and brand reputation risks.
Limit or prevent suspicious IVR activity like account mining, matching and recon
Call treatment or avoidance control using real time data
Enhanced Intel leading to immediate review or omni channel fraud monitoring
Provides lift in overall fraud prevention & faster time to detection
Enables actionable step-up/step-down authentication guidance
