Captive Audience: Why Contact Center Employees Make Ideal Vishing Targets

Imagine you’re in sales and you discover a magic phone number that guarantees a prospect’s unwavering attention and an extended conversation on the other end of the line. Sounds like a pretty nifty setup, right? That is, essentially, what a contact center is to someone in the business of scamming. Any time, any day, bad actors can prey on contact centers, where agents are expected to be accommodating, engaging and helpful. A 2020 study by Neustar found that 45% of unwanted calls are scams.

Contact center employees can be trained to look out for suspicious behavior, and policies can be set to try to prevent sensitive information from being released. At the end of the day, however, the fundamental aspect of the agent’s job is to be available to answer calls and do their best to help callers, leaving them vulnerable to those who seek to take advantage of the situation. This makes them ideal targets for bad actors who want to exploit the circumstances through vishing, or voice phishing...