This week I received several calls from people posing as employees of different companies, trying to obtain my sensitive data in order to extort me. Although I can mark the numbers as spam, scammers always find new ways to operate: if they don’t achieve their goal with calls, they use identity theft to acquire mobile phone services, internet services, make a portability change, or even to buy the latest generation cell phones and appliances without authorization. Telecommunications companies in Latin America face a major challenge with fraud, and it’s time to stop it through biometric identity verification to protect users.

SIM Swapping, deepfakes and identity theft are becoming increasingly common. It is worrying how rapidly identity theft techniques are advancing, and in the telecommunications sector, fraud complaints continue to rise without any progress being made. In Colombia, more than 25% of digital fraud attempts occur when opening accounts for products or services, according to a TransUnion report.

On SIM SwappingThis technique, which involves hijacking telephone lines to access private information and empty bank accounts, has become increasingly common. According to cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, “in Brazil alone, an organized group managed to clone the SIM cards of 5,000 victims, including politicians, ministers, governors, celebrities and high-profile businessmen.”

Also, this year in Colombia, a news story shocked the country when an 84-year-old woman was a victim of SIM card fraud while on vacation. As a result, credit purchases were made, including a transaction of close to 23 million pesos, as reported by Caracol Noticias.

This occurs when the victim’s phone loses connection to the network, and the scammer starts receiving all SMS and calls addressed to the victim, compromising any service that uses two-factor authentication.

 

Now, with Artificial Intelligence, these attacks are even easier to carry out. For example, through deepfakes, AI can generate fake, but highly convincing, videos and audios that simulate a trusted person requesting information or access, which increases the credibility of the attack.

In an interview with Bloomberg Online, a representative of a telecommunications company revealed worrying bad practices: activation of unsolicited services, deactivation of lines for alleged fraud, and changes in the corporate name of legal entities to provoke rejections. These problems directly affect us as users, and protecting ourselves is a requirement. Overcoming this challenge with biometric verification could be the key to improving customer experience and retention.

How integrating biometrics into onboarding and identity verification processes reduces fraud

If telecommunications companies implement biometric verification with proof of life, fingerprint or voice biometrics, it would make it easier for users to manage everything comfortably: from registering and activating their line, to acquiring products and contracting additional services. It would also reduce fraud by impersonation.

Digital onboarding, through the use of such biometrics, allows the pre-registration of user data for subsequent validation through authentication mechanisms.

One success story is that of Deutsche Telekom, Europe’s leading telecommunications company, which managed to reduce its customers’ identity verification time by 90% using voice biometrics. This system made it possible to authenticate users with just their voice, speeding up access to various services.

Voice biometrics offered a clear advantage over traditional methods of identification, such as entering a PIN, receiving codes via SMS or answering multiple security questions to verify identity.

Strengthening biometric verification

Various functionalities can be integrated into different types of biometrics to strengthen the identity verification process and offer maximum security to users. These include:

🟢 Morphology in documents: analysis of visual elements such as seals, signatures and typography to verify their authenticity and detect possible forgeries.

🟢 Biometric patterns: it is technically feasible to implement signature mechanisms that connect people with the procedures or transactions they carry out in telecommunications companies.

🟢 Consultation in reliable databases: verify the data of a person or entity in secure and official sources, thus ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the information for identification purposes. For example, the Registraduría General de la Nación, the National Police or Interpol.

🟢 Validation of document chips via NFC: allows verification of the authenticity and data stored on the chip of an electronic document, ensuring that the information has not been altered.

🟢 OCR: Optical character recognition is a technology that digitizes printed or handwritten text, allowing information to be extracted and processed automatically from physical documents.

🟢 Geolocation: Determines the precise location of a device or person using GPS, mobile networks, or Wi-Fi.

🟢 Behavioral biometrics: Analyzes unique patterns of a person’s behavior, which allows verification of the user’s identity continuously and in the background, improving security and detecting potential fraud in real time.

It is mainly used to prevent synthetic identity fraud, where people obtain SIM cards with false identities to make calls from prisons and carry out scams or extortion.

🟢 Telephone line verification: It includes traffic analysis, line age, and the detection of suspicious activities, such as SIM swapping. This process helps identify unusual patterns, protecting users and companies against fraud and strengthening security in telecommunications.

Incorporating various types of biometrics and combining them with advanced functionalities will be key if telecommunications companies truly want to commit to solving current challenges. Although we may not stop receiving fraudulent calls, at least we will not be exposed to identity theft due to a lack of effective measures.

Biometric verification is an innovative solution that can proactively protect users. In addition, it not only facilitates fraud prevention, but also helps reduce abandonment rates and increase customer value by reducing customer service friction and enabling agents to provide efficient and personalized service.