According to a report, one in 3000 calls received by an inbound call center is fraudulent in nature. This may not be a big number in the eyes of a call center company, but from the perspective of a fraud specialist, it is quite a substantial stat. And, when we look at this stat from the viewpoint of a call center dealing in finance domain, it amounts to an average loss of approximately $0.60 to fraud per incoming call. Cumulated over a year, these trickling losses add up to millions of dollars. Quite a bewildering stat!
Many companies take this loss in this their stride and move on, considering it as a part and parcel of their operations. But this is definitely not the right approach. There are many options available to outsource call center that can do a much better job and save your company lots of money.
Why This Flood of Scams?
Generally, globalization is looked at in a positive light; however, it also has its fair share of downsides. Although, inception of social media with creation of sites like Facebook and Twitter has brought the world closer than ever before, it has also made it easier for hackers to access private information of individuals.
One does not have to be a genius to find out elementary details like a person’s full name, mother’s maiden name, date of birth etc. from social media websites. This is the same information that is utilized by CSR (Customer Service Representatives) to verify the account of users.
An Example
A hacker or a notorious person with ulterior motives can easily access social media sites to seek this information and then call a contact center for gaining vital account information. He can then combine all this information to send emails to a customer while posing as a representative from the bank. Through emails he can ask for ATM pin or phone banking pin or CRN number. And, it has been seen that many individuals are conned by such emails and they actually do send this information across to the hackers. The result: hacked account and money lost.
Because scams (like the one mentioned above) have become so easy to pull off for even a novice hacker, the number of such hack attempts have increased. If you don’t believe this is actually happening, then just turn the spam filter off your email and check your inbox after a few days.
Note: Important to know the skills of Call Center Customer Representative
The Right Approach to Call Center Outsourcing for Countering Scams
Although an individual loses a lot when an account is hacked, the company involved in such an event also suffers a loss in the form of a damaged reputation. Considering the increasing pace of hack attempts, it has become imperative for a company to deploy their call centers with great care. It is possible to setup an in-house call center and then hire the right workforce, train them rigorously, create infrastructure for them and then monitor their every move with great caution. But, the task of implementing these steps is not easy, at least, not for every company. This is why; call center outsourcing to an accomplished company is required. However, before you outsource you should keep certain things in mind. Below are some recommendations:
-
Outsource call center to a company with an AI-powered CRM
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a transformative force that has many benefits in today’s call center operations. With AI integration, a CRM can instantly show the CSR all the details of a customer in a single view. This makes his task easier and he gets time to focus on the call. He can use this time to concentrate on Knowledge Based Authentication (KBA) questions, which are required for customer verification in financial processes.
-
Employ a call center outsourcing company that has a fraud detection system
Fraud detection systems can serve as your first line of defense against scam calls. These systems are able to verify location of caller and call type by comparing it with Caller ID or ANI data for identifying phone spoofing and other hacking techniques.