SURVEY: Call centre fraud prevention found lacking

A new white paper published by Syntec Telecom and compiled by Davies Hickman Partners, shows a marked increase in demands from consumers for call centres to do more to prevent credit and debit card fraud.

Only 1% of people felt that the most secure way of making a payment was through telephone payments to call centre agents, with 53% believing chip and pin to be the most secure.

As a result 72% of consumers, an increase of 4% from 2012, say that call centres should do more to prevent card fraud.

Over half (59%) of those surveyed said that the risk of fraud when giving credit card details over the phone has made them reluctant to make telephone payments and 43% of people said they would buy over the phone more from organisations that can demonstrate secure payment systems. Furthermore, 68% felt that organisations should not be allowed to keep their credit or debit card details on their databases.

CIFAS, the UK’s fraud prevention service, recently reported a 19% increase in credit and store card fraud in the first half of 2013 compared with the last six months of 2012. But even before these figures were released, other research also found customers distrust call centre security.

Richard Hurley, communication manager for CIFAS, commented: “Fraud, unfortunately, is a crime that shows no sign of disappearing. Organisations and individuals must therefore find a way of staying one step ahead of the fraudsters.”

Cloud contact centre management provider, Syntec Telecom offers CardEasy, its Payment Card Security Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) Level 1 compliant hosted ‘keypad payment by phone’ service aimed specifically at preventing credit card fraud in call centres.

Simon Beeching, director at Syntec Telecom, said: “There is no question that card payments over the phone to the call centre remain a weak link. Our research clearly shows that an increasing majority of consumers have serious concerns over card payments by phone. Consumers are now saying they will positively favour brands and call centres that can provide tangible reassurance over their card payment security.”

Syntec Telecom are exhibiting and demonstrating the CardEasy system at Call Centre Expo, Olympia, from 2 to 3 October on stand D40.

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