17Fraud Management in Siebel Energy
Fraud Management in Siebel Energy
This chapter describes the procedures for managing and responding to fraud alerts. It includes the following topics:
About Fraud Management in Siebel Energy
Fraud occurs when someone uses a service to defraud a consumer, business, or service provider by obtaining free services or services that the individual concerned is not entitled to. Some of the more common methods and indicators of fraud follow:
Illegal tapping of utility service points.
Bills returned in the mail with a claim that the customer is not at that address.
Fraud can be identified in various ways. For example, a consumer might identify fraud on a bill, noting charges for services that were not requested or used. Alternatively, a service provider might identify irregular usage patterns that can indicate fraud.
Traditionally, companies have used legacy fraud management applications to identify and manage fraud. The fraud management process involves fraud alerts, warnings that a fraud might have been committed, which are generated by the fraud management application from an analysis of usage details.
A fraud alert can also be generated by a breach of a fraud threshold. A fraud threshold is a value which, when exceeded, produces a fraud alert.
The back-office application issues a fraud alert by placing the customer on a fraud list, a list of customer accounts that are suspected of or confirmed for fraud. The back-office application might generate multiple lists, classified by categories in descending order of the likelihood of fraud.
A back-office fraud management application usually has a front-office component, which is used to manage customer interactions related to fraud.Siebel Energy functions as the front-office application for managing fraud. Your company’s back-office fraud management applications send fraud lists toSiebel Energy for follow-up. Customer service representatives (CSRs) go through the lists and contact the customers to check if they used the services that are the cause of the fraud alerts.
Fraud alerts indicate the type of fraud that might have occurred. For example, Exceeds Threshold is a fraud alert type that indicates that a predefined limit has been exceeded.
To help you resolve cases of suspected or obvious fraud,Siebel Energy allows you to view fraud lists, fraud alerts, fraud-related background information about accounts, and the history of fraud-related activities for an account.
Scenario for Using Fraud Management in Siebel Energy
This topic gives one example of how fraud management might be used. You might use fraud management differently, depending on your business model.
A CSR is responsible for handling fraud issues for your residential customers. A customer has a contract for residential electric and gas services.
Your fraud management application finds that the meter readings at the customer’s location show typical gas usage but no electricity usage. Such a pattern can mean a problem with the electric meter, a theft of energy, or a gas leak in an unoccupied residence. The fraud management application generates a fraud alert for the customer's account, with the fraud level set to Suspected, fraud type set to Theft, and fraud event set to No Electric Usage. The fraud message is forwarded to Siebel Energy. Through integration with the third-party application, the fraud data is sent to the CSR’s Siebel application, and the account is flagged as fraudulent. The Siebel application creates a fraud alert and fraud alert details and updates the customer account with the fraud level.
Siebel Energy has been configured to generate an activity to contact the customer. The fraud alert appears in the customer service supervisor's queue by default, and the supervisor assigns the fraud alert to the CSR, who examines the fraud alert. The CSR also checks for any other fraud alerts raised against the account in the last 12 months to see whether it has a history of fraud. This credit alert is the first fraud alert against the account.
The CSR looks up contact information for the customer's account inSiebel Energy and telephones the customer, intending to ask if the premises are occupied. The person who answers the phone is hesitant and claims that the premises are infrequently occupied. The CSR suspects that this situation is a case of electricity theft. The CSR updates the fraud alert's status and attaches appropriate comments.
Siebel Energy transmits this information to the fraud management application. The CSR's fraud management department then starts its formal investigation and dispatches a field service agent to the premises location.
The following image shows a possible sequence for managing fraud, which includes the following steps:
Examine fraud alert.
Display fraud alert details.
Attempt to contact customer.
If successful in contacting the customer:
Discuss suspected fraud.
Change thresholds or disconnect customer.
If unable to contact customer, then disconnect customer.
Update fraud alert.
Viewing Fraud Alerts in Siebel Energy (End User)
When a back-office application flags an account for fraud, Siebel Energy receives a fraud alert and fraud alert details.
In the course of investigating fraud, end users review the fraud alert to determine the type of fraud that might have occurred. End users then discuss the fraud alert details, which contain the specific data alleged to be fraudulent, with the customer.
Viewing Fraud Alerts
To view a fraud alert, follow this procedure.
To view a fraud alert
Navigate to the Fraud Management screen, then the Fraud Alert List view.
Some fields in the list are described in the following table.
Field Comments Fraud Event
Displays the condition that indicates suspected fraud. The value in this field depends on the value in the Fraud Type field.
Alert #
Displays an alert number that is automatically generated.
Threshold Overflow
Displays the quantity by which the account’s threshold level is exceeded.
Owner
Displays the primary person assigned to this account for fraud management purposes. This person is responsible for customer follow-up to determine whether fraud occurred.
Drill down on the alert number of the fraud alert.
Viewing Fraud Alert Details
To view fraud alert details, follow this procedure.
To view fraud alert details
Navigate to the Fraud Management screen, then the Fraud Alert List view.
Drill down on the alert number of the fraud alert.
Click the Event Details view tab.
An Account form appears with the Event Details list beneath it. The Event Details list displays detailed information about the selected alert. This information typically includes the call detail records associated with the suspected fraudulent calls. Some fraud alerts might have no associated fraud alert details.
Some fields in the Event Details list are described in the following table.
Field Comments Number Location
Displays the geographical location of the number dialed in a suspected fraudulent call.
Date/Time
Displays the date and time of the event.
Number Called
Displays the number dialed in a suspected fraudulent call.
Length
Displays the length of the service in seconds.
Rate
Displays the name of the rate plan used to calculate the charge (for example, Peak, Off-Peak, Standard, Economy, or International).
Charge
Displays the charges for the service from the Charge dialog box.
About Following Up with the Customer for a Fraud Alert
End users might establish contact with the customer. Your company might have a business rule that determines how many times end users must attempt to contact the customer.
If repeated attempts to contact the customer fail, then end users can disconnect the customer’s service. Your company can configure Siebel Energy to send a message to this effect to the back-office application. Workflow Manager or a VB script might be used for this configuration.
Changing Fraud Thresholds in Siebel Energy (End User)
End users can change thresholds in the fraud profile, if necessary. For example, if a breach of a credit threshold generated the fraud alert, then the customer can request a higher threshold. If this request is granted, then it might cancel the fraud alert.
To change a fraud threshold
Navigate to the Fraud Management screen, then the Fraud Alert List view.
Drill down on the account name of the fraud alert.
In the Fraud Account Profile form, change one or more of the fields.
For information about the fields in the Fraud Account Profile form, see Overview of Siebel Energy.
Updating the Fraud Alert in Siebel Energy (End User)
End users can indicate that some action has been taken by adding comments or by changing other fields in the fraud alert record, such as its status, priority, or owner.
To update a fraud alert
Navigate to the Fraud Management screen, then the Fraud Alert List view.
Select a fraud alert record.
In the Fraud Alert record, complete the necessary fields.
Additional End-User Tasks for Fraud Management in Siebel Energy
This topic contains information about another task related to fraud management.
Disconnecting Service
If necessary, end users can disconnect a customer’s service because of the nature of the alert, a discussion with the customer, failure to contact the customer, or the company’s policy. Depending on the severity of the alert, part or all of the customer’s services might already have been disconnected by the back-office application.
If your company has configured the Fraud Activities types to include Service Disconnect, then end users can add this activity to a fraud alert. For information about disconnecting a service, see Siebel Order Management Guide Addendum for Communications.