Fraud Prevention in the Contact Center

Frank Abagnale spoke at this year’s EBT Next Generation Conference about Identity theft, and had two sound pieces of advice for everyone.  The first is to follow the money. The second is to think outside the box.

Who is Frank Abagnale and why should we listen to him?

Frank Abagnale was the subject of the movie Catch Me If You Can, and famously scammed the banks with check cashing schemes while also impersonating an airline pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer. He has since become an authority on identity theft working for the FBI for 40 years, and writing several books on identity theft, including Stealing Your Life in 2007. 

When it comes to financial crime, most of us still have a quaint, old-fashioned mental image of the traditional bank robber. A group of shady-looking men would arrive in a getaway car and empty the safe. It was easy to see them coming, and when they left, we knew they were gone. They even looked like we expected: dark clothes, masks and weapons drawn.  If only fraudsters fit that classic stereotype.

Three out of four consumers have changed their behavior due to the threat of cyber crime. Fraudsters will fear-monger by any means necessary: pop-up alerts, loud threats, and deceitful warnings. They will do anything to trick an alarmed user into falling for the con. Whether you are a business, government agency, enterprise, or financial service, you are all at risk.

While there are a lot of eyes and ears on cyber security, whose watching out for the contact centers? Recently, an owner of a local café in New London, Connecticut was a victim of phone fraud. The owner got a call from a man purportedly from his utility company threatening to shut off the restaurant's power if he didn't pay a past-due bill within 45 minutes.