Daon

In the past eighteen months, fraud schemes have been on an unprecedented rise. In fact, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners called the coronavirus pandemic “a perfect storm for fraud.” And while businesses have worked to strengthen their defenses, many have overlooked a critical weak point: their contact center.

Even before the pandemic, Aite Group found that 61% of all fraud losses could be traced back to the contact center. In another survey from late last year, Aite found that 42% of respondents reported an increase in fraud losses during 2020 (as compared to 2018), and of those, 13% saw an increase of 10% or more.

Over the last few years, Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology has been making our lives easier and more secure in numerous ways—enabling contactless payments, electronic tickets, keyless hotel rooms, and all manner of smart home innovations.

At its most basic, NFC communication protocols enable two electronic devices to communicate via radio waves when in close proximity.

For example, when you present an e-passport to an automated reader at an airline gate, NFC can confirm that the information on the passport chip matches the personal information you’ve provided. And because the data on that chip has been digitally signed by the passport issuer, it’s essentially tamper-proof.

Chances are, your contact center is “the path of least resistance” for hackers canvassing your organization. In fact, while most companies were turning their attention to strengthening and optimizing their digital channels over the past five years, global contact center fraud just kept on growing (accounting for 61% of all organizational fraud losses in 2019, according to Aite Group).

And that was before the pandemic.

Over the past year, with face-to-face customer service all but impossible, an explosion of new callers and contact-center-directed fraud may have (finally) changed the equation—compelling worldwide management teams to prioritize improvements to contact center security and the caller experience in 2021.

In this blog post, we’ll take a look at which specific improvements are most needed, and which solutions are available to help.