Lloyds Banking Group is set to roll-out new technology designed to prevent phone fraudsters tricking its call center staff into believing they’re genuine customers.
The group will begin using technology from Pindrop for its Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland customers from early next year.
The firm claims it analyzes over 140 call features including location, number, background noise and call type to create a unique ‘phoneprint’ which can be used to highlight suspicious activity such as social engineering, voice distortion and caller ID spoofing.
Each call is given a risk score and if it’s sufficiently high that caller could be asked to complete additional step-up authentication or even handed over to the bank’s fraud team for further screening.
Mike Haley, deputy CEO at fraud prevention organization Cifas, said that as banks have expanded their communications channels, they’re coming under increasing pressure to ensure customers’ data and finances are kept secure.
“While many people opt to use online banking methods, there is still a requirement for a telephone conversation and this channel cannot be left to become a weakest link,” he added.
“It’s important also for consumers to remain vigilant and proactive in protecting themselves against fraudulent activity. While organizations like Lloyds Banking Group are making significant investments, consumers need to do their bit in ensuring fraudulent behavior is mitigated and sensitive data is kept private.”
Pindrop Security claimed last year that phone-based fraud increased by 30% over the previous 12 months, exposing the average call center to $9 million in losses.
It’s anticipated that as the US switches over to EMV, even more fraudsters will be trying card-not-present channels such as phone and online.
There were over one million incidents of financial fraud in the first half of 2016 in the UK, a 53% increase on the same period a year ago, according to Financial Fraud Action UK. However, the group didn’t break down how much of this was phone fraud targeted at call centers.
Lloyds certainly appears to be at the cutting edge when it comes to fraud prevention.
On Monday it launched ‘selfie’ technology designed to authenticate new customers signing up for a current account online.
However, the process takes up to two working days to confirm, so it’s likely the ‘selfie’ is reviewed by back-end staff rather than relying on more advanced authentication tech that can approve identity in real-time.