How a Top US Bank Stops Fraud Before First 'Hello'

The call center for a major US bank had become a target. Fraudsters were using call spoofing and social engineering to impersonate legitimate customers, exploit agents and take over accounts. The bank responded by subjecting all callers to a more rigorous authentication process — creating a new problem. Legitimate customers were being pushed through the same gauntlet of questions as bad actors, driving up call handle times and damaging the customer experience.

The bank needed a smarter approach that could distinguish between a real customer and a fraudster before a single word was spoken. TransUnion® fraud experts recommended its robust TruValidate™ Inbound Authentication solution — which uses both Account Link and Authenticator to assess caller identity and call integrity simultaneously.

Authenticator Plus performs end-to-end inspection of each inbound call within milliseconds. It confirms whether a call is genuine — not virtualized, spoofed, anonymously provisioned or otherwise manipulated. If a call doesn’t pass inspection, it’s flagged before it ever reaches the IVR or an agent.

For calls that clear the integrity check, Account Link matches the inbound phone number against TransUnion’s authoritative identity database covering more than 250 million US adults. Caller identities are quickly surfaced, and any missing details are appended to the bank’s CRM.

Together, the two signals allow the bank to make real-time trust decisions on every call. Verified, low-risk callers move through with minimal friction — while flagged calls get the scrutiny they deserve.

The results were clear. Fraudsters relying on spoofed or manipulated calls were stopped cold — while legitimate customers experienced a faster, smoother authentication process. With three-quarters of all calls verified as low risk before reaching an agent, the bank’s fraud team could concentrate entirely on calls that warranted attention — with zero instances of a fraudulent call being incorrectly cleared.

Learn more about Inbound Authentication and how it can help your organization identify and authenticate inbound callers and reduce phone fraud.