Proactively Fight Voice Fraud with Real-Time Intelligence

Voice fraud can directly impact an operators’ profitability day-to-day and minute-to-minute. Even with this immediate risk to their businesses, operators have yet to fight voice fraud in real time.

Traditionally, operators have tackled fraud reactively, analysing historic data perhaps weeks after the criminal has dented their revenue stream and harmed their reputation in the eyes of customers. In the bad old days, there seemed no better way to combat fraud than to methodically work through call data records (CDRs) and invoices after the event, looking for evidence of foul play.

Evidence for fraud would not be typically available to the affected parties until the billing cycle was completed, this could take 30 days or more. A full investigation could even take up to six months to conclude, according to i3 Forum research, in the event of a dispute with other parties in the transaction. This is clearly an unsatisfactory way to deter criminals whose methods are swift, agile and potentially hard to pick up at the best of times.

Operators need a proactive approach to fighting this type of crime, before it consumes their profits or even puts them out of business. What’s required is a way to pick up and analyse network data in real time, supported by machine learning algorithms, in a way that lets operators keep one step ahead of fraudsters.

Using a next generation session border controller (SBC) to gather real-time intelligence combined with the latest Big Data analytics methodologies turns an optimal concept into a practical reality.

The next gen SBC works by sitting directly in the path of the call, alerting the right people as abnormal behaviours are picked up. Not only is the SBC at the heart of the network, it is equipped for deep analysis, delivering unparalleled visibility and enabling immediate response. No longer are alerts triggered long after revenue leakage has occurred.

Machine learning, unlike the old school rule based policies, works alongside the SBC to build a pattern of activity that keeps getting richer and more informative over time. Disputes with other parties can be settled swiftly, since business intelligence can be shared immediately with them showing where a suspected fraud has occurred. In all cases, little or no user input is needed to deliver global security.

This new combination of visibility and predictability mean that the criminal no longer has the advantage.  Less than 24-hour is the new time cycle compared to the usual 30 days or 6 months in  detection and resolution of the fraud, The operator now has a fighting chance to protect their profits and reputation.

Moving from a reactive to proactive approach to combat fraud makes it simpler and easier to identify voice fraud and enables operators to mitigate fraud as it happens. The old approach no longer matches operator requirements, especially when the visibility and intelligence can be built directly into the network.