INTERVIEW Jason Lane-Sellers - LexisNexis Risk Solutions
“Cybercriminals are becoming more and more indecipherable from customers through credentials-enabled
impersonation, with subscription and account takeover fraud now accounting formore than $12 billion in annual
losses.” Jason Lane-Sellers, Director of Fraud and Identity Management, LexisNexis Risk Solutions
The Changing Nature of Fraud
By other estimates, fraud
could consumebetween
3% and 10% of operators’
bottom lines—pushing
potential losses even higher.
Either way, digital channels are
quickly becoming the avenue of
attack behind a growing share of
those losses.
As ever in this business
the criminals are getting
smarter. Cybercriminals are
becoming more and more
indecipherable from customers
through credentials-enabled
impersonation, with subscription
and account takeover fraud now
accounting formore than $12
billion in annual losses.
Comms Business Magazine
(CBM): Is the Fraud problem
getting bigger in the telecoms
sector and what are the latest
attack methods?
Jason Lane-Sellers (JLS): Fraud
is evolving in the telecoms sector,
moving away from what we’ve
traditionally seen, which focused
on pure telecoms services, such
as international dialling abuse, to
an attack which is more focused
on the identity of the consumer.
ere are now multiple facets,
including elements of nancial
fraud, e-commerce fraud, retail,
logistics, social engineering, etc.
With an increase in identity
theft, attacks like account
takeovers are on the rise.
rough the theft of credentials
to access existing customers’
accounts, fraudsters can then
comprise both customers’
telecoms services and personal
nancial services that use the
telecom account for veri cation.
is can also result in the
Jason Lane-Sellers,
director of fraud and
identity management
at LexisNexis Risk
Solutions and
President at CFCA
According to a recent global fraud study by the
Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA),
fraud in all its forms cost the telecommunications
industrymore than $29 billion globally last year. Here,
Jason Lane-Sellers, director of fraud and identity
management at LexisNexis Risk Solutions and President
at CFCA, talks to Ian Hunter and looks at the wider picture
interception of a purchase of
a brand new device from the
telco or the fraudulent use of
credentials for app purchases.
While not all these
issues show immediate
nancial impacts for the
telecommunications industry,
they do impact the relationship
with the customer and the
brand of the telco, resulting
in a reputational hit. is can
decrease the revenue from new
customers taking on services
or result in old customers
switching providers.
CBM: Are you seeing an
effective response from telcos
and communications service
providers to stem the tide?
What are the challenges they
face?
JLS: Currently, telcos are
starting to realise the scale of
the change that is occurring and
are su ering losses as they try
and adapt. It is now clear that
the previous focus on ghting
network and physical retail fraud
reactively needs to change, as
this approach cannot cope with
the scale and advancements now
being adopted by fraudsters.
e industry now needs
to become ‘real time’ and
understand the online journeys
of their customers, in order to
identify trusted customers as
opposed to fraudulent ones.
is can be done by constantly
and anonymously monitoring
transactions. en, telcos are
able to spot when a certain
behaviour may be fraudulent
or a customer is being coerced
into doing something irregular.
Fraud departments also need
to be able to understand the
omnichannel customer, where
customers can interact both
online and physically, all within
the lifecycle of a transaction,
such as in the case of ‘click &
collect’. However, this must be
done in a way which does not
raise barriers for the customer.
e experience should be as
seamless as possible.
CBM: What more could
suppliers do? If there was just
one recommendation from
CFCA, what would it be?
JLS: Telcos need real time,
unobtrusive omnichannel
fraud risk management. ere
should be limited friction in
the consumer process, while
still allowing management
of the full remit of consumer
risks. is comes at a time
when telco fraud teams now
have to not only protect the
organisation from fraud, but
prevent consumers from being
impacted whilst utilizing their
services.
26 | Comms Business Magazine | April 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk