Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) is a subscription model offered by carrier providers. The charge of the availed subscriptions is added to the monthly mobile bill or deducted from the available balance, and generally transactions are made using a single click. According to a source, the DCB market is expected to grow by 9% between 2018 and 2022.
Offering convenience through this model has substantially increased purchases & eliminates the need to fill in card details and account sign-ups. The user is already using the existing carrier number.
The estimate number of smartphone users in India would reach 1132.9 million by 2025. India’s Average Revenue Per Paying User (ARPU) reached $3.9 by March 2021. Cybercriminals have been infiltrating mobile devices through general trojans, ransomware, password trojans, and others , with an average 93.93% of devices affected by general trojan malware.
The Biggest Challenge of Operators
Fraudsters use baits like malware/bots, Potentially Harmful Apps (PHAs), copycat apps, pirated content for downloading, etc., to acquire device access of unassuming device owners. Their two most crooked methods for DCB VAS frauds are iFrame and device farms.
The bots/malware installed on the user device can even bypass USSD, CAPTCHA, and OTP & cause DCB fraud. DCB fraud means the carrier user is wrongly charged for subscriptions they have not made. Customers often disregard the charges, as they are minuscule, and rectifying them would take a toll of their time, with the added burden of talking with customer care, which often has long queues.
End-user often becomes a victim of fraudulent charges. The mobile users who are victims of the unprovided/un-availed services blame the carrier providers for it. The operator must also answer to the telecom regulatory authority and face heavy fines or stop the services entirely. The lost faith in the carrier provider redirects revenue to competitors.
Creates Complications for the Merchants
Merchants suffer a loss of revenue if they become a victim of DCB fraud. They become as much liable as the MNOs, and in some instances, even more. Merchants often use marketing/advertising to increase their VAS subscribers. Unfortunately, fraudsters have found loopholes in their traffic generation methods.
The actions of the cybercriminals lead to large-scale claims accumulated through defrauded customers, which evidently leads to fines, service cuts by the regulators & telcos, or suspensions. Regulators may adopt new methods for enhancing their payment security, which could diminish the VAS subscriptions, as consumers constantly face frictions and might even increase abandoned carts.
Solution Against DCB Fraud
mFilterIt’s DCB fraud solution offers a solution that helps brands across the globe to separate real users from bots/malware through our AI, ML, and data science. The solution validates the incoming traffic in real-time and safeguards brands at every step of the journey. It is an integrated fraud management solution for aggregators and operators.
DCB fraud solution uses deterministic, heuristic, behavioral, and probabilistic parameters for classifying frauds. It eliminates frauds by risk scoring and real-time blocking. The live dashboard and real-time alerts optimize customer value management, enhance LTV, drive ROI, and diminish DCB fraud complaints.
A Few Other Tips
- Don’t click on unnecessary URLs or visit suspicious pages/untrusted sources.
- Analyze the loss of partnership, revenue, and brand value caused by DCB fraud and take measures to overcome them by implementing mFilterIt’s anti-fraud solution for DCB.
- Take advice from our core founder and management team on the best practices or methods of implementing our solution and eliminating ad fraud.
Conclusion
The safety of the consumers also falls on the carrier provider in case of DCB frauds. Brands also lose trust, revenue, and customers if they cannot trust the carrier provider. The need to eliminate and restore the faith of the customer is now.
This scenario is possible through DCB anti-fraud solution and implemented by global brands that want to keep their market reputation and sustain their market share. Moreover, the solution helps to detect and eliminate threats of real-time bot/malwares.
Connect with us to learn more about the advantages of eliminating frauds in the DCB VAS ecosystem.
