- Global analytics software company FICO has teamed up with Jersey Telecom to offer a new solution to combat Authorized Push Payment (APP) fraud.
- The new offering, the FICO Customer Communications Service Scam Signal, combines real time network data with customer and payment data to identify and mitigate APP fraud as it happens.
- FICO made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVr New York, in 2016.
A partnership between analytics software company FICO and Jersey Telecom (JT) has yielded a new solution to provide direct, near real-time intervention to protect customers from financial crime in general and Authorized Push Payment (APP) fraud in particular.
The solution, the FICO Customer Communications Service Scam Signal, works by identifying the most relevant telephony signals that indicate a scam is taking place. The new offering represents the first real-time combination of telephony data, customer data, and payment data to deal with the problem of Authorized Push Payment fraud.
“Authorized Push Payment fraud is where customers are tricked into sending authorized payments to scammers,” JT Head of Mobile Intelligence Solutions Clare Messenger said. “This type of fraud is growing around the world; 2023 losses in the U.K. alone reached £460 million. To protect customers from being caught by such scams, the new FICO and JT solution enables direct intervention with the customer to quickly determine if a payment should proceed.”
To achieve the new solution, Jersey Telecom worked with the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) and the U.K. Mobile Network Operators to access mobile network insights while adhering to a privacy compliance framework that protected customers’ personal information. Meanwhile, FICO uncovered strong correlations between a customer’s mobile phone behavior and the potential that an active scam is occurring. The Scam Signal leverages this combination of real-time network data, customer data, and payment data to identify and mitigate the social engineering tactics that can trick and ultimately defraud account holders.
“The integration of Scam Signal within the FICO Customer Communications Service allows banks to present customers with personalized, omni-channel, and highly contextualized messages that break the scammer’s spell for high-risk activities,” FICO VP of Product Management Adam Davies said.
“These messages can be built into conversation ‘flows’ that respond in real-time to the actions the customer takes,” Davies explained. “For example, if a customer hesitates or looks to progress a payment, additional messages can be sent, and different options offered, such as suggesting delaying the payment or offering to speak to a fraud prevention specialist.”
The new offering is currently available in the Channel Island of Jersey, the U.K., and Spain, and there are plans to eventually expand to additional markets. Nevertheless, FICO reported that “major high-street banks in the U.K.” are already deploying Scam Signal. One institution piloting the new technology said that it had reduced the number of people being scammed by 41%, lowered fraud losses from scams by 44%, and reduced the number of false positives by 55%.
Last month, Scam Signal won the Silver Medal at Datos Insights’ Fraud Impact Awards for “Best Scam and APP Fraud Prevention” solution. The technology has also been shortlisted for the “Anti-Fraud Solution of the Year” award at the 2024 U.K. Payments Awards.
FICO made its Finovate debut in 2016 at our developers conference, FinDEVr New York. Today, businesses in more than 100 countries use FICO’s technology and solutions to defend customers against fraud, advance financial inclusion, boost supply chain resiliency, and more. The company’s FICO Score has become the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the U.S., and is used by 90% of the country’s top lenders.
Founded in 1956 and headquartered in San Jose, California, FICO is publicly traded on the NYSE under the ticker FICO. The company has a market capitalization of $47 billion.