Contact centers are high-risk attack fraud locations that enterprises can no longer afford to overlook. While the $190 billion cybersecurity industry is focused on technical/syntactic threats, yet semantic threats, such as online scams, are ranked the second most common fraud vector in the U.S.
More often than not, call center agents unknowingly verify fraudsters, authorize scams, and innocently assist the caller in data breaches. Not because they’re negligent but because they’re human (a vulnerability no encryption protocol can fully mitigate).
While the KPIs of most customer experience or customer service leaders are measured by speed and customer satisfaction delivered by their teams, fraudsters exploit these KPIs against you:
If you add too many security layers, your CX suffers—agents slow down, operational costs increase, and customers get frustrated. If we loosen security for speed? Fraud increases, financial losses mount, and compliance risks escalate.
So, how do large enterprises secure their contact centers without compromising service quality?
Let’s find out.
Call center fraud refers to malicious activities when criminals use contact centers to steal money, customer data, or sensitive business information by tricking agents and bypassing security controls.
Fraudsters use social engineering, account takeovers, and call spoofing to manipulate agents into giving unauthorized access to valuable accounts or systems. These attacks cause more than just financial loss because they damage customer trust, hurt company reputation, and can trigger penalties that disrupt normal business operations. Contact centers process vast amounts of private information every day, making them prime targets for criminals who look for weaknesses in procedures or technology.
When you recognize the common methods of call center fraud, you can take better steps to protect your business and invest in stronger security measures that stop attackers before they cause harm.
In 2024, almost 29% of adults in the U.S., roughly 77 million people, faced an account takeover, making it one of the most frequent forms of identity fraud in the country, according to Security.org. Increasingly, fraudsters use contact centers to carry out these attacks by exploiting weak authentication processes to gain entry.
The following list explains some of the leading causes behind fraud targeting contact centers.
You need to understand the different ways attackers use contact centers to detect and prevent fraud early. These methods often focus on weak points in agent verification steps or outdated systems that lack proper access controls:
Fraudsters often impersonate legitimate customers and use personal data to bypass verification steps. Once they get in, they can reset passwords, change account details, and lock out the real customer within minutes.
Some attackers call in pretending to verify charges or update billing info, only to trick agents into revealing or updating card details. They may then use this information to make unauthorized purchases or resell the data on the dark web.
Both tactics rely heavily on stolen data from previous breaches or phishing attempts, and their frequency continues to increase each year. Recent reports reveal that contact center fraud surged by 60% during the last two years, showing a sharp rise in attacks. Hiya also reported that the total number of fraudulent and nuisance calls climbed from 11.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 12.5 billion in Q1 2025.
These numbers show how quickly attackers shift their methods and how important it is to upgrade security controls before the damage spreads further.
Scam networks run like corporations. It’s harder now because you aren’t against lone cybercriminals but industrialized crime engines.
Some ways in which they carry out their activities include:
When fraud hits your contact center, it causes lost revenue, erodes customer trust, and creates ongoing difficulties for your business. Here are the main impacts of allowing fraud to go unaddressed in your contact center operations:
Contact center fraud can drain your budget quickly when criminals access accounts or card details without permission. Companies now face hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses per incident.
For instance, Regula found that financial services firms lost over $603,000 on average in 2024 due to deepfake and AI-driven fraud attacks, and roughly 10% of companies lost more than $1 million in a single event.
When consumers feel unsafe reaching your brand, trust vanishes quickly. Across fraud types, more than 90% of companies reported financial loss due to deepfakes, which shakes confidence in your brand and relationship with customers.
As a result, customers, investors, and partners start asking tough questions, and regaining trust takes months or years.
Fraud also digs into daily operations, triggering high volumes of calls, account freezes, and extra audits. Fraudsters now launch attacks every 46 seconds, with deepfake attempts rising more than 1300% in one year alone.
These attacks force teams to react constantly to threats, reducing the time available for helping genuine customers. The increased workload drives up operational costs and strains support staff, making it harder to keep service levels high. Without adequate fraud controls, organizations face ongoing disruptions that slow business growth and reduce customer satisfaction.
When consumers lose money and report fraud more often, regulatory agencies respond by tightening rules and increasing penalties to protect the public. In 2024, the Federal Trade Commission recorded consumer losses totaling $12.5 billion from all types of fraud, which pushed regulators to step up audits and enforcement actions across many industries.
Companies that lack strong fraud protections face heavy fines, expensive legal fees, and mandatory reporting that drain resources and distract leadership from focusing on core business goals. Organizations that delay meeting compliance requirements risk permanent damage to customer trust and could face costly lawsuits that threaten their long-term operations.
Preventing call center fraud requires a clear plan that targets common weaknesses and protects customer interactions. By using specific strategies, companies can reduce risks and stop scammers from taking advantage of system gaps.
Here are several effective methods to apply:
Regularly updating and randomizing Interactive Voice Response (IVR) messages disrupts fraudsters' predictable scripts, making automated fraud attempts more challenging. This unpredictability forces scammers to adapt, buying time for detection systems to identify and block suspicious calls.
According to a 2024 report, 69% of contact center decision-makers believe spam and fraud against commercial outbound calling are impacting their company's bottom line. Additionally, 96% expressed interest in adopting enterprise authentication and spoof protection technology to mitigate fraud attempts.
Adding background noise or lowering audio quality during calls stops fraudsters from getting clean voice samples. These poor-quality recordings make voice cloning and deepfake attacks far less effective at fooling agents or automated systems.
A 2025 report by Smartnumbers highlights that 59% of fraudulent activity flagged by their customers relates to fraudsters suppressing account notifications or making minor changes to customer accounts to prepare for attacks.
Keeping all contact center software up to date closes security holes and fixes vulnerabilities before fraudsters exploit them.
Updating systems frequently also adds new security features that can detect or block fraudulent activity.
Evaluating the security of every third-party service linked to your contact center helps prevent fraudsters from using those connections to breach systems. Vendors must adhere to strict security protocols to protect customer data and prevent unauthorized access.
This approach is essential in safeguarding against potential vulnerabilities introduced through external integrations.
Providing hands-on fraud prevention training for every employee involved in customer interactions raises awareness and sharpens skills. Regular sessions about current payment security threats and how to avoid data leaks keep staff ready to respond quickly to risks.
A 2025 report by Smartnumbers found that 28% of fraudulent activity flagged by their customers is due to fraudsters attempting to validate or steal more customer data. Training should include how to spot red flags, follow escalation protocols, and use indicators like repeat calls or withheld numbers to identify threats early. Regular refreshers and post-incident reviews help teams stay updated and responsive to evolving fraud tactics.
By strengthening human judgment alongside technical defenses, companies can detect threats faster and reduce the chances of successful fraud attempts.
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Suggested read: Curing your contact center data security epidemic |
Sycurio transforms how contact centers handle payments, turning compliance and security into seamless, effortless processes.
It offers solutions like Sycurio.Voice that allows customers to enter payment details directly via their phone keypad or through speech recognition, bypassing contact center systems and reducing the risk of data breaches.
Sycurio.Voice simplifies PCI DSS compliance for contact centers by securely handling payment transactions across multiple channels. It uses:
Sycurio serves industries like healthcare, finance, retail, and government, enabling them to transition smoothly into a digital-first world while safeguarding every customer interaction.
CCaaS payments ensure secure transactions within the contact center, creating a centralized fraud prevention system.
Its ability to provide secure payment solutions across voice, chat, and other digital platforms provides a unified fraud prevention system, ensuring that fraudsters can’t exploit gaps between customer touchpoints.
Sycurio’s chatbot at the payment gateway
Sycurio’s DTMF masking technology ensures agents never see or hear payment card details, removing the risk of agent fraud. With no exposure to sensitive payment data, the contact center is shielded from internal mistakes by agents and external threat actors and keeps up with PCI DSS regulations.
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Suggested watch: What happens if an agent makes a mistake |
Sycurio simplifies PCI DSS compliance by isolating payment data and reducing scope across contact center infrastructure
Sycurio removes the need for pause-and-resume by enabling secure payment methods where customers enter sensitive payment details directly through their phone keypad, speech recognition, or secure payment links without an agent being exposed to sensitive information.
As a QSA Company, Sycurio allows organizations to bypass certain external security assessments for PCI compliance. This reduces the time and cost of audits, freeing up resources for fraud prevention and improving operational efficiency without the disruption of lengthy compliance processes.
Every call center fraud attempt hinges on one constant: interaction between the fraudster and the victim. Yet most security frameworks, rooted in the Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA) triad, are designed to authenticate access, and not detect malicious intent.
As a result, fraudsters can exploit even PCI-compliant systems simply by sounding legitimate. Traditional security tools react to known fraud patterns, but social engineering evolves faster than rule-based defenses, leaving critical gaps. This puts customer payment data at risk and drives organizations to layer on more security, often increasing friction and damaging the customer experience.
Platforms like Sycurio enable this shift. For example, Sycurio.Voice masks customer payment data through DTMF tones, removing sensitive information from agent interaction and call recordings, maintaining both security and a seamless experience. By proactively managing engagement from the first touchpoint, companies can intercept fraud before it escalates.
For a practical summary of how to do this, see our contact center fraud prevention checklist.
Ready to strengthen your call center fraud defenses? Book a demo today to see Sycurio in action.
Contact Center Fraud Prevention Checklist
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Contact center fraud involves manipulating call center systems and agents, using tactics such as identity theft to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information.
Implementing solutions like secure payment systems that prevent sensitive information from entering the engagement/interaction phase. Other important prevention measures include training employees and setting up voice biometrics to authenticate caller IDs.
Remain calm, follow security protocols, and refrain from sharing personal information or granting any access, however critical. Re-verify the caller's identity using additional authentication methods and escalate to a fraud team if necessary to block further access.