New authentication technology by Eckoh reduces identity fraud in contact centers

Eckoh's new technology seeks to address the fraud problem while saving time and increasing security.

- Continued innovation in customer engagement security technology

- Technology evolves to enable contact centers to identify and verify both caller and agent

- 17th patent underlines Eckoh's strong IP, backed by proprietary technology

The risk of identity theft and fraud is ever-increasing. Whilst technology that helps contact centers authenticate customers has been improving very little exists to allow customers to verify that unsolicited calls to them are from a legitimate representative.

[London] Eckoh's new technology seeks to address the fraud problem while saving time and increasing security. It allows customers to verify the identity of who is calling them without disconnecting and to share information securely to complete transactions.

This technology has further strengthened Eckoh's international patent portfolio with two further patents. A portfolio of 17 international patents now backs Eckoh's strong IP.

The new patents to be granted are for Reverse Contact Center Authentication. This new technology dramatically improves security and convenience for end customers when receiving unsolicited calls from organizations, helping to prevent them from becoming fraud victims.

A simple and effective solution to reduce contact center fraud

When a customer receives a call from an organization, they cannot know whether the call is legitimate or a scam. In these cases, the caller will likely hang up and dial back on the number they know to be authentic and starts the conversation from scratch. This process is time-consuming for both agent and customer.

With Eckoh's newly patented solution, the caller can verify the representative's identity by clicking on a link, either from the organization's publicly available website or their app. If the customer is already logged in or chooses to do so, the page will immediately confirm that an agent is on a call with them based on their registered contact details. This confirmation also validates the customer to the agent and provides a secure channel to share information. Alternative approaches to the 'login' option include verifying via other standard methods such as entering a one-time pin.

Strengthening proven, proprietary technology.

Once formally presented, Eckoh will have patents for this technology in the USA, UK and Canada. These patents will complement the existing IP in these same regions for inbound Contact Center Authentication. This solution comprises sending the customer a message to their mobile device when they customer phones a contact center. To save time and increase security, the caller can confirm their identity before connecting to an agent through an existing mainstream authentication method, such as PayPal, Facebook, or Amazon. Once connected to an available agent, the caller's relevant and verified information can be immediately seen by the agent, usually without further security checks, and they can greet the customer appropriately. Billing and mailing addresses retained by these methods can prepopulate contact center CRM systems, saving the agent time and increasing data accuracy. Because the caller has already authenticated themselves against (for instance) PayPal's login process, the contact center agent (and the organization they represent) can be sure that they are talking with the actual person the caller claims to be.

Leading IP in Secure Payments

Patents play a critical role in Eckoh's secure payment portfolio. Their secure proxy patent underpins Eckoh's unique approach to customer engagement security used in their market-leading secure payment solution, CallGuard. CallGuard automatically replaces payment data or other sensitive data such as Social Security Numbers with 'placeholders' or 'tokens' before entering an organization's contact center or IT environment.

The solution neutralizes sensitive data and deploys over existing IT infrastructure and payment systems without disruption. Eckoh's ChatGuard product uses this same method to secure payments within any Chat software conversation; and can also be applied to Chatbot or messaging apps such as WhatsApp for secure compliant payments.

Once these latest patents have been granted, Eckoh's international patent portfolio will total to 17 granted patents, with the earliest expiry date in 2031.

Nik Philpot, Eckoh's CEO, commented:

"Eckoh has a long heritage of innovation. This new patent extends our extensive patent portfolio and further validates the skill and imagination of our talented team. The importance of creating and owning our IP cannot be overstated. It is critical for customers and partners alike to be confident that their supplier is providing a solution that does not potentially infringe on another's IP - especially so when it deals with such a sensitive area as security.

"We underpin our data and payment solutions globally with technology that is owned and patented by Eckoh. We continue to explore new ways to innovate and tackle the growing and evolving security needs of our clients across the globe."