Pindrop Extends ‘Phoneprinting’ Tech to Voice Response Environment

Pindrop, a company specializing in call-based fraud prevention, has announced a new platform to complement its flagship Fraud Detection System. Called IVR Anti-Fraud, the system brings Pindrop FDS’s “phoneprinting” technology to the interactive voice response (IVR) setting.

According to Pindrop, IVR—that purgatory between calling a business and reaching a service agent—is where 60 percent of call time takes place, and it’s where fraudsters “do reconnaissance before account takeover.” But Pindrop offers a potentially powerful countermeasure, with its technology analyzing a range of contextual data—network signalling, Dual Tone Multi-Frequency tones, caller behavior, and more—to determine a fraud risk score for the caller. The company says its technology can detect more than 80 percent of would-be fraudsters.

In a statement announcing the new system, Pindrop CEO Vijay Balasubramaniyan said that a beta test conducted with one of America’s top banks “showed that IVR fraud rates are on par with the growing threat of live agent phone fraud.” As such, IVR Anti-Fraud offers banks a potentially compelling security solution that extends Pindrop’s technology “to the entire call center ecosystem.”

With major backers like Google Capital and a financial services industry grappling with increasingly sophisticated forms of fraud, Pindrop may find a very interested market for its technology.

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February 26, by Alex Perala