One of the things I like best about working at Equinox is the relationships we have with our customers. We get to know our customers personally, we really care about them, and we invest our resources in helping them succeed, especially when it comes to the battle of telecom fraud. If you've read our other blogs, you know just how passionate we are about arming fraud management practitioners with the right knowledge, tools, and training for the job at hand. We start by delivering a software solution that is designed to protect revenue and mitigate fraud loss. While having the right tool is important, it's not enough. We also want to inform every analyst of the most effective way to use that tool to achieve maximum benefit. One of the most popular ways we do that is via on-going training led by fraud expert and veteran Protector user, Christi Vanoye.

We determine the timing and content of educational sessions based on needs identified during customer interactions or from questions submitted to our support and training departments. And that is exactly how we discovered that our fraud management customers wanted additional Hot List training this spring. After that session ended, we began collecting input from customers and planning for the next training event, which we held at the end of June. That webinar presented best practice recommendations for case management. We received such a favorable response to the event, including requests for copies of the session, that I decided to feature it in a blog.

Top 4 Best Practices for Case Management

To ensure maximum benefit from your fraud management efforts, Equinox recommends the following best practice guidelines for case management.

  1. Clear out old violations. Being warned about a suspicious event is not enough. It's imperative that you research and disposition every suspicious event in a timely fashion. If you don't, you are susceptible to false alarms and are more likely to miss infractions in the future.
  2. Close open cases in a timely fashion. It's just as important to stay on top of cases as it is to deal with violations and suspicious events. While it's normal and expected to have open cases at all times, you must resolve and close cases regularly and in a timely fashion. Use all the tools available to you to regularly monitor the list of currently opened cases, so you can keep them under control.
  3. Reduce false alarms. One of the single most important steps you can take to ensure best results with your FMS is to reduce false alarms. Be sure that your system is configured correctly for your network, based on your current customer type and traffic, otherwise you can get false alarms. When false alarms are high, it's easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of alerts and/or ignore the notifications altogether, causing you to miss viable fraud alarms.
  4. Properly deal with repeat violations. If every third violation you see when working cases is part of a past case, examine the customers and numbers involved to identify any needed adjustments. When your system includes many repeat violations, you can become accustomed to seeing a violation from a legitimate source so often that you are more likely to overlook an actual fraud violation when it occurs.

In addition to observing these best practices, Equinox recommends a couple of FMS housekeeping tips:

What's Next?

Based on the success of the most recent webinar, we have already begun gathering suggestions for the next educational session. You can also be sure that some of your suggestions will materialize as training sessions during the annual Protector User Group Meeting, which occurs October 10–12 in Nashville. Registration is now open for the event. Please join us!

We want you to get the highest return from your fraud management efforts and are here to help. We are happy to conduct web-based training for customers who want to learn more about case management practices or to review their configuration settings. Our Support department is only a call (615-612-1225) or click away!

About the Author — Amy Oldham is in Corporate Communications at Equinox Information Systems. To learn more about Equinox, visit equinoxis.com or call (615) 612-1200.