As our smart devices get ever smarter, voice-enabled technology is fast becoming something we take for granted – to the extent that it’s now a common security feature for call centres.
But as the technology improves and becomes more prevalent, it represents a greater opportunity for fraudsters to make a fast buck. According to Pindrop’s 2020 Voice Intelligence Report, an average of 90 voice fraud attacks happened in 2019, equating to one in 770 calls.
In an article for Business Reporter, Pindrop, which engineers fraud-detecting solutions for voice interactions in call centres and on IoT devices, points to the dangers of continuing voice fraud highlighted in the report – which are particularly worrying given that banks remain the largest channel for contact centre calls. And the huge spike in call volumes during the Covid-19 pandemic has only served to amplify the danger.
But it’s not just call centres that are having to grapple with clever new methods of fraud. Increasingly sophisticated AI has led to “deep fake” technology that represents a new avenue for these criminals, and a new threat to security. Last year saw the first successful synthetic voice attack on a European CEO, which resulted in a £200,000 loss for the company. And simple deep fake videos, such as that of US Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, which simply slowed her speech down to make it look like she was slurring, have shown how easy it is for this technology to fraudulently influence public opinion and wreak havoc on the reputations of public figures.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, many customers are continuing to engage in unsafe online behaviour – using the same password for different accounts, for example. And the organisations they are served by continue to use outdated security methods, such as relying solely on call centre agents to root out fraudulent calls.
A new approach can help change all this, however. Risk-based solutions that analyse individual calls, layered intelligence that goes beyond simple two-factor authentication, and ensuring that call centre employees understand the growing threat landscape are just some some defences that can be deployed.
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About Pindrop
Pindrop’s multi-factor solutions use every facet available from a voice interaction — audio, voice, and metadata – to provide risk scores and unique credentials using Deep Voice™ biometrics along with Phoneprinting® and Toneprinting® technologies. These technologies, used in concert with machine learning and a consortium of 1.1 billion phone calls per year, allows Pindrop solutions to provide highly accurate and unrivaled results for contact centers and voice applications.