How to monetize the IMS as a watchdog for bank fraud prevention?
Banks are constantly exposed to fraud, and the problem is growing. In 2023, fraud loss totaled 39 billion US dollars. With the rise of digital money and various forms of payments, fraudsters are also going digital. Many frauds are done via phone calls. So, what can IMS do? Know the power of IMS data. It helps banks to prevent fraud and at the same time service providers can monetize their IMS. How?
Solution Marketing Manager
Marketing & Competence Management
Solution Marketing Manager
Marketing & Competence Management
Solution Marketing Manager
Marketing & Competence Management
The numbers of telecom fraud- a growing criminal business
In 2023, the global telecom industry experienced about 39 billion USD in fraud losses, marking a 12 percent increase from the previous year. These figures were shared in a global telecom survey conducted by the CFCA, the Communications Fraud Control Association, with GSMA’s Fraud and Security Group (FASG) as one of their strategic partners.
What are the keys to combat this extensive criminal business? We need to know the fraud mechanisms and prevent them with innovative solutions.
A major growing trend for fraud in the financial industry is the manipulation of the victims. Fraudsters tend to target consumers who are less familiar with the digital world. They often contact the victims by phone to engage them in fraudulent financial transactions, indirectly involving service providers in the fraudulent chain. What about your brand? What about risking an increased churn? Why not take the challenge of fraud prevention off financial institutions and monetize your network at the same time?
Let us consider a fraud scenario as an example.
A typical bank fraud model, can you recognize it within the circle of your friends?
"Ring ring", "Moshi moshi", "Dring dring", "Klingeling", "Riiing riiing", "喂喂 (wéi wéi)", "झंझं (jhanjhan)", “Trrr Trrr”, ” 铃铃 (Líng líng)”, ” Timbre timbre”, ” Τριν τριν (Trin trin)”, ” رنين (Raneen)”, ” 따르릉 (Ttarureung)”, ”ピンポン (Pinpon)”.
The story begins with a ringing phone, wherever the victim is.
A kind individual presents themselves as the victim’s computer operating system technical support. The fraudsters even manipulate technology to make it seem like they are calling and representing a familiar company. As an aggravating factor, the victim may not be familiar with the digital world. The caller is good at building trust and convincing the victim that the computer needs to be fixed. Trust, even if fraudulent, opens the doors. The caller asks for the victim’s credentials to log into the computer and initiate bank fraud.
The caller keeps the victim talking. At the same time, a specialized team steals the login credentials for online banking from the computer. Thrilling, climax nears as they conduct a money transaction from the victim’s bank account, as a legitimate transaction. The end of the story: the victim has lost money, simply by answering a call.
It's not a rare story at all, nonetheless, it is so common nowadays! You probably know people who have fallen victim to such fraud.
Certainly, banks identify suspected transactions, based on the information they have. Examples of information: Not a usual time stamp for the transaction, the amount of money transferred to a bank in a tax haven and the name and age of the bank’s customer. In particular, age could indicate whether the victim is elderly or retired, which is often the case for this type of fraud.
Sometimes this is enough to interrupt the fraud chain, many times not. Although we cannot change the beginning of the story, we can change its end. How?
Could call data, owned by the service providers, be valuable for the banks to improve their process to identify suspicious transactions?
The telecom network can play a key role in identifying fraud by exposing data
In the story, the fraud begins with a call, which falls within the domain of service providers. These service providers possess both real-time and historical information both for handling calls and complying with regulations. Which type of data do they have? A non-comprehensive list includes the start and end time of the call, the caller and the receiver’s identity, call state, any supplementary services involved in the call, and the called locations.
In the story, this means that the service provider knows the call scenario for the receiver at the time of fraud, without knowing that the subscriber is a victim. This includes information like:
- The subscriber is engaged in a call
- The subscriber is the call receiver
- The time of the call’s reception
By exposing the call scenario to the bank, the fraud picture is clearer for the bank with the new elements:
- The bank’s customer is busy on a call
- The call started about seven minutes before the time stamp of the suspected transaction
- The person who received the call
These elements become a stronger suspect for the bank, increasing the probability that the bank’s customer is a victim of fraud.
The conclusion of the story changes! The bank’s IT security systems block the transaction and inform the customer, for example by sending an SMS, with the invitation to contact the bank in case the transaction is legitimate.
Here lies a crucial crossroads: Banks equipped with the call scenario versus those without it, a distinction that can reshape the story's outcome.
Do service providers need a new network node to address this issue? If so, which network node could be the source of the call information?
MTAS, within IMS, holds the final piece of the fraud puzzle: the call information scenario
The Ericsson Multimedia Telephony Application Server (MTAS) is the carrier-class application server for voice and multimedia. It supports legacy telephony and future services, such as multi-device applications and multimedia services, over multiple accesses such as fixed, mobile, and Wi-Fi. This embodies the primary mission of MTAS.
However, being MTAS involved in any call, it has all the call information to process the calls.
We will examine how the banks receive the call information, which helps them improve their precision in detecting possible fraud.
MTAS and the exposure layer, managing the call information exposure
The MTAS in the IMS is the source of the call information that is managed through an application programming interface (API).
The ability to expose APIs opens up opportunities for service providers to strengthen their role in the enterprise ecosystem. This is achieved securely, with authenticated accesses, and in a controlled way, with the monitoring of the Service Level Agreement (SLA) enforcement.
This applies to the API call information as well. MTAS and the exposure layer can significantly impact bank fraud prevention.
The flow of the call information is represented in the picture.
Be inspired and stay tuned, as new cases are coming
The solution is versatile enough to support other use cases beyond fraud prevention. The bank use case is just driving the API call information. As the proverb goes, “knowledge is power”. The API call information holds valuable knowledge, not limited to banks alone. The banking incident marks just the beginning of a series.