63% of customers prefer a callback from a business over waiting on hold when they call a business, as per a study by Software Advice. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems have thus become a key component of efficient customer service and streamlining customer interactions.
However, with the rise of advanced voice scams targeted at the enterprise, these systems have ended up exposing the enterprise to newer threats.
One such insidious threat is the IVR callback scam. In this VoIP scam targeted at enterprises, malicious actors misuse the callback feature to get the enterprise to call premium rate numbers, resulting in exorbitant telecom bills for the company.
In this article, we shed light on the intricacies of the IVR callback scam, explore preventive measures, and talk about how you can safeguard your enterprise against IVR callback scams and other such fraudulent activities.
The Rise of IVR Callback Scams
There are two primary ways through which scammers execute the IVR callback scam:
- Manipulating the IVR Callback facility: Scammers initiate calls to IVR systems, navigating through the menu options to reach the callback feature. Once they connect, they get the system to place calls to premium rate numbers. These return calls end up racking international calling fees as your agents and employees try to connect to ‘customers’.
- Fraudulent form submissions: In another variant of the scam, scammers fill out online forms with premium-rate numbers, requesting callbacks. Unsuspecting businesses, believing they are responding to legitimate inquiries, initiate callbacks to the provided numbers, unknowingly incurring substantial costs.
Preventing IVR Callback Scams
Prevention is key when it comes to combating IVR callback scams. Here are a few ways to mitigate the risk:
- Enhanced call monitoring: Implement robust call monitoring systems that can detect unusual calling patterns or suspicious activities associated with callback requests. This includes tracking the frequency, duration, and destination of calls made through the IVR system.
- Regular security audits: Conduct periodic security audits of IVR systems can help identify any abnormal calling patterns – rather than waiting till the telecom bill arrives. This also includes reviewing and updating callback configurations, to ensure that they adhere to strict security protocols.
- Verification and authentication: Implement stringent verification and authentication protocols to ensure that callback requests are legitimate. For instance, you could include using unique identifiers, such as customer account numbers or personal identification numbers (PINs), during the initial interaction to verify the caller’s identity when they request a callback.
But all too often, this is easier said than done.
Why IVR Callback Scams are Hard to Prevent
- Manual intervention and static blocklisting do not work: Premium rate or high-call rate numbers keep changing dynamically. Using a static database to detect malicious callback attempts is a fundamentally flawed approach.
Even otherwise, verifying each callback request manually is impractical and prohibitively time-consuming.
- Global reach: IVR callback scams are not limited to a specific region or country. Scammers can operate from anywhere in the world, making it difficult for manual intervention to effectively monitor and block fraudulent calls from different locations.
- Authentication and verification don’t work for prospective customers: Authentication and verification methods are not effective against callback requests from new prospects. Implementing other verification measures for every new prospect can create friction in the customer experience, potentially deterring legitimate prospective customers.
To effectively combat IVR callback scams, you need a combination of automated systems, AI-powered algorithms, and dynamically updated threat intelligence databases to help detect known numbers associated with IVR callback and other VoIP scams.
Assertion® SecureVoice™: Real-time Protection Against IVR Callback Scams
Assertion® SecureVoice™ leverages AI-powered real-time call monitoring and analysis to identify and block fraudulent, malicious, and unwanted calls, ensuring that your contact centers are shielded from the financial and operational risks associated with IVR callback and other VoIP scams.
Here’s how Assertion® SecureVoice™does this:
- Real-time Call Blocking: SecureVoice™ analyzes incoming and outgoing calls in real-time, employing AI algorithms to identify patterns and indicators of fraudulent activity. This enables the system to
– block malicious incoming calls before they reach your contact center agents
– flag and monitor suspicious callers and their behavior
– stop any outgoing calls to premium rate numbers
- Threat Intelligence Integration: SecureVoice™ integrates up-to-date data from threat intelligence databases, constantly updating its knowledge base to identify known scam numbers associated with IVR callback and other fraud.
- Behavior Analysis and Monitoring: It monitors and studies the behavior of suspicious callers, by learning their calling patterns and behaviors. Based on this, it relies on a regularly-updated confidence score to screen suspicious calls.
Its dashboards surface any calling anomalies for timely detection and investigation of irregularities and potential scams. This also means that it can help identify the most targeted numbers, agents, or contact center programs for you to tighten training and security practices around them.
Assertion® SecureVoice™’s Anomaly Detection
Confidence scores that are updated in real-time to continuously track the behavior of suspicious callers
- Customizable Security Policies: SecureVoice™ provides you with the flexibility to define and enforce customized outgoing call security policies tailored to your specific needs. This allows for granular control over outgoing calls, say for compliance with OFAC regulations.
Conclusion
The IVR callback scam is rapidly becoming a significant threat to businesses and their contact center operations. In many cases, the exploitation of the callback feature by scammers has forced enterprises to disable the feature – despite its obvious impact on customer experience and service.
As the digital landscape continues to evolve, you need to remain vigilant against current and emerging threats.
By leveraging AI-powered real-time call monitoring and analysis, you can
- fortify your VoIP security defenses,
- protect your agents and employees,
- maintain operational efficiency, and
- secure your enterprise and your customers
Experience all this for free – with a zero-cost POC of Assertion® SecureVoice™ by emailing us at sales@assertion.cloud