Does Contact Centre Fraud Need a Rethink?

Fraud is no longer a one-off incident. New data shows that criminal networks are scaling fast, targeting multiple organisations at once and using the contact centre as their entry point.

This matters because what happens in your IVR, self-service and agent channels can have a direct impact on customer trust and operational cost.

The findings you cannot ignore

The Smartnumbers Annual Fraud Review 2025 reveals some significant statistics:

• Fraudster profiles increased by 469% in 12 months, revealing how fast organised crime is growing
• 68% of attacks now hit multiple organisations, showing the scale of coordination across sectors
• IVR-based fraud has doubled, driven by AI automation and weak authentication controls
• The contact centre has become a prime intelligence source for understanding criminal behaviour

Why this matters for contact centre leaders

If your risk monitoring is still separated by product or channel, you may be missing coordinated attacks that span multiple brands or service lines, with fraudsters increasingly attuned to exploiting traditional authentication processes. Real-time intelligence, shared data and a joined-up view of caller behaviour are now essential to stop attacks before they reach the customer.