How call masking is proving to be an effective solution to payment card security compliance for one Welsh housing association.
Crime targeting ‘card not present’ payments is growing and criminals are increasingly turning their attention to contact centres. According to Financial Fraud UK, fraudulent activity within contact centres almost doubled between 2011 and 2016 (following increases in security measures of other payment channels), costing the UK £432 million per annum.
Ongoing developments in Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards and the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) last year, now mean housing associations taking card payments over the phone need to ensure customers’ card data is kept as safe and secure as possible. To meet PCI Digital Security System (DSS) compliance, organisations are required to protect customer card data from mis-use or exploitation to avoid facing significant consequences.
Bill Barker, customer services officer Newydd Housing Association, explains:
‘When taking rental payments, previously we asked callers to read out the “long card number” on their credit or debit cards while staff paused and resumed call recordings.
‘This was secure up to a point, however, we wanted to remove any risk of tenants being overheard if they were in a public place or the chance of any human error while staff entered details. With changes to the data protection regulations, we were looking for more protection for our customers and staff and needed to upgrade to a more compliant solution.’
Call masking is provided by contact centre and PCI DSS payment specialist Eckoh, and is supplied to the government sector by allpay, to provide an economical solution to PCI DSS compliance.
‘As well as masking card numbers, the new system removes the need to pause and resume calls, enabling our staff and customers to keep in contact for the duration of the call,’ explains Barker. ‘Calls are still recorded while users key in their card details, the DTMF (‘dual-tone multi frequency’) tones entered by the customer on their phone are replaced by flat tones before they enter the contact centre environment. Our tenants have been particularly positive about the change as they “feel more secure”.’
Please visit: www.allpay.nethttps://www.eckoh.com/pci-compliance