An Adeptra poll of banking industry executives found that more than third (36%) said the incidents of cases of fraud they were handling had increased and a further 20% said that it was a priority to speed-up reaction times to prevent potential fraudulent transactions. Almost a third (30%) said they were seeking ways to more effectively resolve cases.
The poll of top-tier North American retail banks and card issuers was conducted by Adeptra during a fraud prevention seminar on how the institutions were addressing and using technology to aid fraud prevention across multiple communication channels. Adeptra is the global market leader in Auto-resolution technology.
Studies by a division of the US treasury, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), determined that suspicious transactions related to credit card fraud increased by 95% from 2007 to 2008, a figure that is expected to rise again by the close of 2009. As a result, banks need to stay on top of ways they can improve their handling of fraud cases by speeding up resolution processes, increasing effectiveness and investing in new technologies.
Consumers have been suffering from the effects of greater amounts of their private data being put in the hands of fraudsters, who commit credit card fraud. Tom Wills, Senior Analyst of Javelin Strategy & Research, said after presenting during the seminar, “Fraudsters are exploiting time to their advantage, and they are more organized than ever. From 2005 to 2008, the misuse of stolen information within a week of compromise rose from 33% to 71%. Hackers are creating organized crime networks, which allow them to move more nimbly and become harder adversaries. An act of fraud can be committed in a matter of minutes, whereas before it may have taken hours or days. To fight the new wave of fraud requires effective tools and methods that shrink the amount of time it takes to notify a customer, to stay ahead of criminal activity.”
Banking institutions must continue to work to both educate customers on the risks of fraud and seek to prevent it. They need to reach customers in the ways and with the right tools that make the greatest impact on them.
Adeptra’s survey asked banks and credit card issuers how they educate their customers about fraud and how they prevent it. The survey found that face-to-face sessions at account openings and online FAQs are the most widely used methods, each selected by 28% of respondents, while 15% preferred advertising through TV, online and in print. Other methods that were selected included communication to customers via fraud or contact center staff (12%), and a tenth said they included inserts in statements or mailings.
Opinions were also gathered on the main channels of contact currently used to notify customers of suspected or actual fraud, to which the majority (73%) stated that they contacted customers via a call to their landline. Eight percent said they called the customer on their cell phone. Seven percent used email, and five percent used postal mail. No respondents had used social media to communicate potential fraud to consumers, while only three percent used text messages to cell phones.
Finally, the findings also suggested that there is a discrepancy in the contact methods preferred by banks and card issuers versus those demanded by consumers. A previous Adeptra survey of consumers in NYC in October found that the majority of respondents (54%) would prefer to be notified with a call to their cell phones, and 20% to their landline telephone. A further fifth (20%) opted for email notification, and six percent said they would prefer contact by cell phone text/SMS.
Lou Venezia, CEO of Adeptra said: “Banks and card issuers are confronted with increased fraud volume and time-sensitivity of threats to consumers. They require a solution that can stay ahead of threats and utilize communication channels that customers will respond to. Customers are demanding calls to cell phones for notification. Adeptra can help by providing automated contact and resolution services, contacting consumers swiftly, directly and through the right channel as soon as fraud is suspected.”
ENDS
About Adeptra
Adeptra is the global market leader in Auto-resolution™: technology that automates key call center interactions to reduce their cost and dramatically increase performance. Applications are fully integrated, industry-specific solutions for business processes such as fraud detection, payment reminders and opt-in marketing programs.
Distinct from less sophisticated auto-dialer systems, Adeptra combines recorded dialog with state of the art natural language to reach out to individual customers and personally engage with them about important, time-sensitive issues. Adeptra is able to make thousands of customer contacts simultaneously and achieves higher levels of portfolio penetration and produces significantly better results than human agents alone. The resolutions it secures are delivered into clients’ computer systems for reporting and analysis.
Among its many customers, Adeptra is used by the majority of leading retail banks across EMEA, N America and APAC. It occupies a premium position in the market by continually reinvesting in its technology, operations and service structure. Adeptra was the first Interactive Voice Messaging organization to be accredited to the highest data protection standards mandated by the payment card industry (PCI DSS) and, uniquely, has since achieved this on a global basis.
For more information, visit www.adeptra.com
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