As the threat of fraud continues to increase, JT and FICO have produced an award-winning solution to combat Authorised Push Payment fraud.
Their customer communications service ‘Scam signal’ has been recognised by Datos Insights as the winner of this year’s Silver Medal in the Fraud Impact Awards for Best Scam and Authorised Push Payment Fraud Prevention solution.
JT and FICO worked with UK banks to identify the most relevant telephony signals that indicate an active scam. As a customer communications service, ‘Scam signal’ is the first real-time application of telephony data being used with customer and payment insights to tackle the problem of authorised push payment (APP) fraud, where consumers are tricked into making payments to scammers. It enables direct, near real-time intervention with the customer to determine if a payment should proceed.
“This Scam signal product addresses a significant and growing problem,’’ said Clare Messenger (pictured), Head of Mobile Intelligence Solutions at JT. “Authorised push payment fraud continues to grow globally and in the UK market losses reported in 2023 reached £460 million.”
To build this solution, JT worked with the GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association) and the UK Mobile Network Operators to access mobile network data within a privacy compliant framework that protects personal information. FICO’s analysis found strong correlations between a customer’s mobile phone behaviour and the likelihood that a scam is taking place. For example, a customer may be actively coached through security or manipulated by a fraudster into making a payment during a mobile phone conversation.
“The integration of Scam signal within FICO Customer Communications Service allows banks to present customers with personalised, omni-channel and highly contextualised messages that break the scammer’s spell for high-risk activities,” said Adam Davies, vice president of product management at FICO. These messages can be built into conversation ‘flows’ that respond in real-time to the actions the customer takes. For example, if a customer hesitates or looks to progress a payment, additional messages can be sent, and different options offered, such as suggesting delaying the payment or offering to speak to a fraud prevention specialist.”
