Every year we take time in December to reflect, spend down-time with family and friends, eat our fill, and most importantly spend money unscrupulously. Subscription sales, new device purchases, account activations, retail returns and cancellations soar. According to a study by Mckinsey, nearly 40% of consumers intend to treat themselves more than ever. After three years of a pandemic, inflation has begun to ease and there are increasing wages and savings. A majority of consumers are signaling that the Holiday Season is back to what we remember.
For our nearly 3M friends in customer support who are often on the front lines of consumer interaction, their call center leadership is bracing for an unknown, and likely understaffed season. We can assume that given the new spending power of many Americans, that purchases will rise, and so too will account takeover fraud unlike we’ve ever seen. This December the fraudsters will be more than happy to rake in their unfair share this holiday season.
How? They know the pressure that call centers will be under. They know that time per call and time to resolution are crucial to achieving the goals of hundreds of thousands of support teams. And most importantly, they know that when the Customer Support Reps answer the phone or chat log, they have no idea who is on the other end.
“Thank you for calling”
“May I please ask who I am speaking with?” is the usual refrain, and in this moment the fraudster can be anyone who they want to be. Generally if you can provide an account number, invoice number or answer a dreaded “What street did you grow up on?” knowledge based question, you can access anyone’s account with a little persistence. With so many people activating new accounts or resetting passwords for old accounts during this season of supposed relaxation, customer support teams will need to look at new ways to understand who they are talking to, and quickly.
A solution to Impersonation Fraud
Identity Verification online, over the phone, or anywhere will give Customer Support teams the assurance that they can mitigate these potential fraud loses in seconds, without having to become investigators themselves. With Nametag’s VIP Support for customer service teams, representatives will only need to send a link via SMS, email or through chat to identify the consumer by having them validate their government ID using their device camera and matching it to their own facial biometrics with a selfie.
At Nametag, we wish everyone a well deserved and safe holiday season, but stay vigilant when you're trying to protect your accounts or communicate with representatives. Customer Support teams are doing the best they can with the tools they have, but sometimes even they need a little support.
