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Those who work in call centers have quite enough to worry about, what with tough working conditions, abusive customers and high staff-turnover rates. Now comes word of an even more-worrying trend: Rising fraud.

Researchers at Pindrop Labs, a company that bills itself as the authoritative source for voice/audio fraud and authentication trends, unveiled recent analysis of more than 10 million calls in both the U.S. and U.K.

“The report outlines impact by vertical, attacker device type, and attacker location for enterprises in the U.S. and U.K., as well as new trends and attack vectors used by organized crime,” Pindrop said. “Strong online and mobile security plus the abundance of breach data and the rollout of EMV chip cards in the U.S. means cybercriminals are changing tactics, exploiting the weakest link in the organization: the call center. The rate of call center fraud attacks has grown 45 percent since 2013.”

“There is an alarmingly large increase in attackers targeting call centers to gain access to funds and steal key assets including money, merchandise and proprietary information,” said David Dewey, Director of Pindrop Labs. “This problem is not restricted to U.S. financial institutions -- this is a growing problem on a global scale. The common thread is that criminals go where the likelihood of detection is lowest and the rewards are high.”

Dewey is not understating the problem. Among other findings of the report:

• In 2015, enterprises lost an average of 65 cents to fraud, per call. This means a large call center that receives 40 million calls per year can expect to lose between $17 million and $27 million annually.
• U.K. financial institution call centers are being hit with very high levels of fraud attacks when compared to counterparts in the U.S. In the U.K., fraud rates are at 1 in 700 calls, which is more than double the 1 in 1,700 calls in the U.S.
• Fraud rate and exposure vary by industry. Over the past year, credit unions had the potential to lose $29 million in fraud exposure. Life Insurance companies faced a greater risk of $31 million in potential loss, which is three times larger than the average of other financial institutions.

Bottom line: This is a costly problem that’s only going to get worse, especially for those that don’t take precautions. How much could YOU afford to lose?