Fraudsters are cunning. By probing different customer channels, they search for weaknesses to gather information and set up an attack. To minimise the impact of fraud, it must be detected as early as possible. However, banks have many customer interaction points with a lot of entrances that need to be monitored and kept secure. To create an effective defence, banks cannot be focused on only telephony or digital in isolation. Instead, they need to have a holistic cross-channel fraud detection strategy in place.

Challenges impacting the effectiveness of a cross-channel fraud detection strategy

The strategy in creating cross-channel fraud detection requires participation from Fraud Prevention, Customer Authentication and Customer Satisfaction teams. However, each section of the business experiences a different part of the customer journey, gathering insight locked into different systems. What may look acceptable in isolation can, in reality look suspicious when put in the larger context.

For example, someone calling into a contact centre to reset login credentials and then registering for mobile banking before transferring money - in quick succession - looks suspicious. However, looking at each interaction individually it might look fine.

Online fraud detection platforms have been set up to monitor interactions. They gather information about payments, cash machine usage and digital channels. However, they are often missing critical real-time telephony data.

Real-time telephony data enhances fraud detection and improves authentication

Many banks have implemented voice biometrics to fight fraud. This method compares call recordings to known bad actors or real-time analysis of the vocal pattern. Either way, there needs to be some speech available.

If banks were able to analyse real-time telephony data, they would be able to detect fraud earlier. We have seen that adding systems that analyse call signalling helps to increase the amount of fraud stopped by 40 per cent when layered on existing fraud defences. In addition, adding telephone risk scores to fraud detection platforms enables banks to detect fraud at the first sign of suspicious activity and have a broader view of fraud risk.

By combining all these methods, it is easier to detect trustworthy callers and enable them to complete more self-service options through systems such as the Interactive Voice Response (IVR). Furthermore, when the customer reaches an agent, fewer checks need to be completed to confirm the caller's identity, which provides the customer with a better caller experience and leads to a lower overall cost.

Streamline customer authentication and fraud prevention

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