Despite the many forms of fraud that have arisen with new consumer technologies, mobile and telephone fraud still remains one of the most common routes to commit fraud against consumers and financial institutions. Whether it is to obtain PIN numbers, attempt to launder money or activate too many cards, protecting financial institutions from fraud is key to protecting consumer property as well.

Last week, intelligent interaction and authentication fintech company ENACOMM announced a partnership with Boku, a mobile identity provider. Through this partnership, ENACOMM plans to integrate Boku’s device ownership and possession verification into its Fraud Control Module (FCM), enabling dynamic interaction channel behavior. This will help financial institutions and credit card companies to reduce fraud and prevent account takeovers through smarter and more comprehensive protective measures.

ENACOMM’s Goal

Tusla-based company ENACOMM provides interactive and intelligent customer self-service applications and user authentication technologies to a variety of financial institutions. Utilizing communication channels across the web and mobile space while harnessing AI, big data and voice biometrics, the company provides a multi-modal service that quickly intakes, automates and processes high volumes of spoken or digital customer interactions and automated data transactions. Overall, ENACOMM aims to support open banking, affordable solutions, and improved, data-based operations for bank customers and credit union members.

The Fraud Control Module

The ENACOMM Fraud Control Module implements customizable fraud indicators to allow for users to identify and stop suspected fraudsters with definitive rule-based actions across multiple customer interaction channels. In particular, the module uses customizable telephony and interactive voice response (IVR) application fraud indicators to provide the information needed for organizations to establish effective prevention measures.

The Fraud Control Module system takes on four key tasks. First, the module evaluates incoming calls in real-time using the caller’s automatic number identification (ANI) or account number to compare its activity to preset business roles. Second, the module also inspects historical call records to identify and record potential fraud. Third, the FCM checks existing caller information for blocked ANIs, whitelisted numbers, suspect ANIs and limited function ANI status to determine how to best route the caller. Finally, the module tracks and responds to behaviors that waste company resources, such as excessive call center transfers, unwarranted IVR use, excessive card entry errors and excessive use of telephony resources.

With the new partnership, FCM users will now be able to deploy Boku solutions as an additional layer of security to quickly verify legitimate users and identify likely fraudsters using signals from mobile service providers.

“A common tactic used by fraudsters is to hijack an account holder’s phone number and use it as proof of identity to access account information,” explained David Jackson, ENACOMM Executive Vice President of Strategic Products. “Ensuring that a consumer has both legitimate ownership and possession of their phone number allows us to eliminate this type of fraud.”

When phone behavior that breaks fraud rules is detected, ENACOMM’s customer servicing applications can automatically require further authentication, remove high-risk application options such as funds transfers or PIN changes, and route users to fraud queues. Based on mobile identity signals from Boku, FCM users can now create fraud rules that, when triggered, will prompt the system to perform one or more actions such as sending an email alert to the fraud team with details on the incident.

This partnership reflects the new implementation of digital identity solutions to help mitigate mobile device-based fraud. With this improved technology, banks, credit card companies and more will have the potential capabilities to protect themselves and their customers from fraudulent callers.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Serena He is a Tech Innovation Fellow from the University of Southern California who is interested in AI and the intersection of design and technology. She enjoys covering news across the digital identity and tech space.