Phone Fraud Attacks Spike 29% Hitting Five Fraud Calls Per Minute

Pindrop Security Issues 2012 Semi-Annual Report Based on nearly 1.3 Million Fraudulent Calls

ATLANTA – August 2, 2012 – Pindrop Security, the innovative provider of enterprise phone fraud security solutions, today released its State of Phone Fraud Report for the first half of 2012. During this period, Pindrop Security tracked nearly 1.3 million phone fraud attacks, representing a 29 percent increase over the six-month period prior. At this rate, there are more than five fraud calls targeting individuals in the U.S. every minute. In addition, large financial institutions are being victimized as nine out of 10 of the largest banks were impersonated or spoofed by fraudsters, harming the banks reputations and relationships with customers.

“Telephone fraud continues to erode consumer trust for financial institutions,” said Dr. Vijay Balasubramaniyan, founder and CEO of Pindrop Security. “With the number of incidents and the number of phone numbers used by attackers continuing to increase, we know that the cost and hassle will only get worse for consumers before it gets better.”

Pindrop Security’s State of Phone Fraud Report, 1H 2012 details trends in fraudulent activity in the first half of 2012. The most notable findings include:

• Phone fraud increased by 29 percent: There were nearly 1.3 million instances of phone fraud in the U.S. from January through June 2012, representing a 29 percent increase over the prior period, July through December 2011. At this rate, there are nearly five fraud calls every minute.
• Almost every big bank is being spoofed: Calls to consumers purporting to be from a trusted financial institution continued to spread. Nine out of the Top 10 Banks and 34 of the Top 50 Banks either had their names spoofed in Caller ID data or were impersonated by fraud callers.
• VoIP continues to be the primary device type used by fraudsters: 46 percent of the fraud calls came from Voice over IP phones. Cell phone use increased significantly from 5 percent last year to 14 percent. Google Voice led among VoIP provider networks and Verizon led for cell phone provider networks. The rate of attacks from Verizon cell phones reflects their market share. Google Voice does not publish subscriber numbers.
• Attacks are increasing in all U.S. geographies: While a few areas seem to have slightly higher attack volume than others, phone fraudsters are attacking people across the country. On average, one call for every 186 citizens is fraudulent on an annual basis.

“As a provider of solutions to help enterprises identify and mitigate phone-fraud, Pindrop Security has a unique and data-rich view of the phone fraud industry,” said Dr. Paul Judge, Pindrop Security Executive Chairman, “By identifying numbers used for fraud and tracking the callers behind them, we are able to protect companies from these attacks.”

The State of Phone Fraud report identifies trends in consumer telephone fraud with an emphasis on attacks that purport to be from trusted organizations such as large financial institutions. Phone fraud incidents covered in the report include vishing (targeted scams), Caller ID spoofing, forwarding attacks, SIM swapping, toll fraud and other consumer-focused attacks. The report describes the frequency and geographic distribution of attacks by phone fraudsters from January-June of 2012. Pindrop Security previously released a report examining the period from July-December 2011.

Pindrop Security products are used by large financial institutions and in other industries where high value transactions occur over the phone. Pindrop Security’s Fraud Detection System analyzes phone calls to determine caller location and device type to identify spoofing. Pindrop Security’s Phone Reputation Service provides companies with access to the world’s largest database of known fraudulent call fingerprints to track phone fraudsters and other malicious callers.

Resources: 

• To view the State of Phone Fraud Infographic, visit pindropsecurity.com/infographic.
• To download the State of Phone Fraud Report, visit pindropsecurity.com/report. 

About Pindrop Security

Pindrop Security provides enterprise solutions that help prevent phone-based fraud. Its acoustical fingerprinting technology detects fraudulent calls and authenticates legitimate callers, helping customers eliminate financial losses and reduce operational costs. Pindrop Security’s breakthrough technology is the first of its kind to fingerprint individual phone calls, providing verification of caller provenance. Recently named one of the 10 Most Innovative Companies at the 2012 RSA conference and a Gartner “Cool Vendor” in Enterprise Unified Communications and Network Services for 2012, Pindrop Security’s solutions help companies feel more confident in the security of phone-based financial transactions. www.pindropsecurity.com

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