Phone data and biometrics combined by Nuance, Smartnumbers to fight UK contact center fraud

Nuance has partnered with Smartnumbers to enhance the Nuance Network Validation Service for contact centers in the U.K. with upgraded security and fraud prevention, by filtering out scammers before they reach the interactive voice response (IVR), the company announced.

The partnership with Smartnumbers brings to the table carrier-grade telephone data that Nuance’s software can leverage to detect fraud attempts pre-answer. Smartnumbers is embedded in the core telephone network to analyze incoming calls and, in case of a red flag, forward them to a dedicated team.

Contact centers are a key component in customer engagement, but old-school fraud prevention and detection techniques cannot keep up with advanced fraud tactics of manipulating automated messages to access an account or confirm PII, the companies say.

Nuance’s Network Validation Service uses over 50 attributes to rank incoming calls based on number spoofing, repeat withheld calls, country, network operator and VoIP. It leverages an AI risk engine and voice recognition watch-list to send alerts in real-time and ensure a low false positive rate. Additionally, the software uses real-time passive voice biometrics scores to reduce friction in customer authentication by lowering the assurance threshold biometric verification has to meet.

The voice biometrics feature in Nuance Gatekeeper was recently upgraded with age analysis to identify callers over the age of 65 for prioritization of their calls.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  call centers  |  fraud prevention  |  Nuance Communications  |  UK  |  voice biometrics