Retailers hit hard by phone channel fraud, Pindrop

Contact centre fraud attacks have increased by 350% over the last four years, with the most targeted sectors being retail, insurance and banking, according to research by Pindrop.

There are two main reasons behind this dramatic hike. Cybercrime is a lucrative industry (valued at $1.5 trillion) and data breaches are on the up. And fraudsters have also become highly sophisticated and have gone omnichannel. For example, they may use social engineering to reset a password on a victim’s account. Then use that reset password to commit online fraud.

“A major reason that fraud rates increase is that most organisations struggle to find the right balance of security and customer service. When stronger traditional security measures are put into place, these measures typically impact customer experience, often to an organisation’s detriment,” says Vijay Balasubramaniyan, CEO and Co-founder, Pindrop.

“The proliferation of voice technologies will continue to put consumers’ security and identity at risk. Currently, fraudsters can easily get around existing authentication methods. But as businesses adopt the latest voice technologies for the majority of customer interactions, there will be a parallel need for top-notch security.”