Introducing The Risk Rating Feature for Illuma Shield™

Since its initial development, Illuma Shield™ voice authentication has offered a highly secure method for verifying caller identity in banking contact centers. Now, its latest “Risk Rating” feature, which comes along with the 2nd Generation Voice Authentication Engine, offers agents even more peace of mind. This feature presents a visual alert if there is a suspicion of fraudulent activity that warrants closer attention. 

Contact Center Leaders Are Concerned about the Rise in Fraud

According to Katie Johnson, Contact Center Manager at TruWest Credit Union, “Fraud is a big concern in contact center land. What we were doing for security up until three years ago with out-of-wallet questions was getting torn apart by fraudsters. Something had to change, and Illuma Shield™ has been a great step in the right direction. The new Risk Rating capability is added peace of mind for the agent and the member who is enrolled in our voice verification system. The credit union as a whole can really put a lot of weight into this product in terms of ROI, knowing that we are doing as much as we possibly can to fight crime through the phone channel.” TruWest launched the Risk Rating feature in mid 2024 and has already caught multiple fraudsters in real time. 

The Risk Rating Feature Addresses New Trends in Voice Fraud

The new feature visually alerts agents about behavioral anomalies that result from real voices that don’t match the enrolled members’ voice. It is also triggered by digitally manipulated or altered voices. TruWest had been noticing strangely robotic voices coming in on calls, which represented a new twist on the typical fraud behavior. Although these voices sounded a bit off to the human ear, it wasn’t necessarily noticeable enough to stand out. Katie noted, “If you’re an agent and you’re in a back to back, call after call situation, you’re not always hearing some of the little nuances.”

Tim Walters, Member Experience Manager at WyHy Credit Union, said his team noticed an identical problem. “Within a couple of weeks of deploying the Risk Rating feature, a fraudster called who was using voice modulation software of some kind. The call sounds a little stilted, not very smooth. But it wasn’t bad enough that it would stand out. Illuma flagged it as high risk. The agent asked a few extra questions, and it became very clear it was not the member. We were able to go back and listen to phone calls from the member, and it was clear that it wasn’t them. The fraudster did not get verified either way, but the High Risk flag highlighted up front that more time should be spent on identification.” 

Both credit unions noted that the fraudsters seem to be using software to mask their existing accent and sound more American. Walters mentioned another layer to the fraud that is designed to lull agents into a false sense of security. “These calls often have the area code spoofed so it appears local. Our agents think it’s a Wyoming call and are more likely to want to provide assistance to the caller. With caller IDs being spoofed, we needed another layer of security to help our agents remain diligent.”

Chantelle Viliborghi, Assistant Manager at the TruWest Contact Center, noted that hearing an odd background noise is another hint that a fraud call may be in progress. “Sometimes you can get a real member calling in who just has their windows down in the car and it alters the audio. But with the fraud calls, it’s just random noise, like fire trucks or an ambulance, as if they are trying to disguise what’s going on in their background.” This would make sense for fraudsters calling in from a contact center set up specifically to perpretrate mass fraud attacks.

How Do Agents Respond to High Risk Alerts?

For both credit unions, there are step-up authentication procedures in place when a high risk call is flagged. According to Chantelle, “It’s definitely alerted the team and made them aware so when something comes in, they’re double checking, asking additional verification questions.”

For Katie, “It’s a nice tool that we’re able to lean on. If you’re an agent who gets a high risk notification, you can put it in the chat so that you can have a supervisor look at the account with you. It’s good to get more eyeballs on the call just in case it is something that needs to be addressed right away if it is, in fact, fraud.” TruWest also has a full fraud process that can initiate other departments to review the call, look at IP addresses, see if a new device is registered, etc. 

At WyHy, step up authentication is also in place to address high risk calls. According to Tim “There are additional layers. We may have agents dive a little deeper into transactional questions or account history such as asking when the account was opened. Even if the fraudster has access to the online banking, there is nothing in there that would reveal that information. We came up with questions that even the best social engineer would have trouble answering.”

Ease of Implementation and Use for Risk Rating

At WyHy and TruWest, the implementation of the new feature was no more complicated than the flip of a switch. Training the agents was also simple, since the visual alert is easy to interpret. Katie shared her experience, “Training was very minimal. We made an announcement through a meeting and followed up with a quick email as a reminder. That was it. They were already using Illuma Shield™, so it was just an addition to what they’re already doing.”

Occasionally, legitimate callers do need to go through extra steps if there is an anomaly with their audio that causes a flag, but the incidence of false positives is so low that it is not a concern in terms of impacting user experience. 

Tim mentioned that agents dealing with high call volume need technology to support them in identifying risks. “We don’t get many fraudulent calls. It’s actually nice to have Illuma in place because most of the calls we get are fine and it can get off the radar of our agents to be diligent.  It’s easy not to be skeptical with so many real members calling in. The Illuma high risk alert has helped us address this issue. It helps agents focus on making sure we are talking to someone who is authorized to access the account.”

As more contact centers roll out the Risk Rating feature, Illuma will continue to gather information about evolving tactics and develop new ways to combat fraud.

Ready to have a conversation about fraud prevention today? Contact our team.