The communications trust crisis is no longer a future risk — it’s a daily reality. Fraudulent robocalls, call spoofing and voice‑based scams are disrupting how consumers and businesses connect, undermining confidence in one of the most important customer engagement channels: the phone.
In 2025, fraudulent robocalls were estimated to have cost consumers over $80 billion USD globally, and over half (51%) of US consumers surveyed reported being targeted by scams through email, online platforms, phone calls or text messages between February and May that same year.
It’s an inbound/outbound problem
Growing voice fraud includes inbound calls from customers to businesses and outbound calls from enterprises to consumers. To securely reach consumers, business must adopt authentication strategies that protect both inbound and outbound voice interactions — helping restore trust and reduce fraud in today’s increasingly hostile threat landscape.
Download the eBook: The New Voice Landscape: Why Authentication Must Work Both Ways
Without that trust, businesses can’t reach customers — and consumers won’t answer legitimate calls.
- The voice channel is still a highly popular communications channel.
Over three-quarters (78%) of consumers said the phone channel is important when communicating with businesses. That’s especially true for urgent, complex or personal issue resolution.
Businesses also highly value the phone as integral to their outreach. In fact, 86% of decision-makers across a wide range of industries said it’s the most important outbound channel for meeting customer service goals and increasing revenue.
- Negative call experiences are disrupting business engagement.
That includes businesses calling customers and consumers reaching out to call centers for support. According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers lost about $1.9B to fraud through phone calls, texts or emails last year. They lost more money per person (a median of $1,500) when they interacted with scammers on the phone.
- Consumers and businesses are demanding solutions to identify legitimate calls/callers.
They want to block spoofed calls and imposter scams before they happen — enabling businesses and consumers to transact with greater confidence.
With little recourse themselves, consumers must rely on businesses to protect them from fraud. Instead of detecting fraud after it occurs, it’s time businesses take a proactive approach; one that recognizes the value of the voice channel and is centered around a clear picture of customer identity through strong authentication.
Key recommendations for businesses
Strengthening both inbound and outbound authentication is essential for reducing fraud, increasing customer trust and improving operational efficiency. To build a resilient and scalable authentication framework, organizations can focus on the following best practices:
- Pilot authentication for high‑risk interactions to validate effectiveness and refine workflows before broad deployment.
- Monitor authentication performance, customer friction and fraud‑reduction metrics to ensure ongoing optimization.
- Develop a phased roadmap that progresses from basic caller ID validation to advanced multi-factor and biometric authentication capabilities.
- Continuously assess the threat landscape and adapt authentication methods to evolving fraud tactics.
- Train frontline agents on updated processes and escalation paths so they can confidently guide customers through authentication steps.
By layering complementary authentication methods — including caller ID verification, IVR-based authentication, one‑time passcodes (OTPs), device reputation checks and biometrics — organizations can achieve strong security without sacrificing a smooth customer experience. A multi-layered approach ensures if one method is compromised, others continue to protect both the customer and enterprise.
This balanced strategy not only reduces fraud, it strengthens trust and sets the foundation for a more secure and intelligent customer interaction ecosystem.
Read the eBook and learn how TransUnion Trusted Call Solutions (TCS) can help.
