Leveraging phone number data to counteract fraud in the fintech industry

Validating and verifying every individual and every transaction is daunting enough, but in the digital world as more fraudsters hide behind keyboards or spoofed phone numbers to steal, the financial institutions – not just the consumers or businesses– can end up covering the cost of this global fraud epidemic. They additionally risk tarnished reputations and lower customer satisfaction when fraud is committed against their customers. This is why, from pre-registration to logins to every transaction thereafter, financial institution must remain vigilant in validating and verifying the digital identity of customers before a transaction is approved. 

While there are six primary signals to verify one’s digital identity -- name, email address, physical address, IP address, biometrics and phone number -- the phone number rises to the top when it comes to identity verification. Harder to generate, location-oriented and packed with metadata, they are easily integrable into existing systems and processes. For example, leveraging authoritative and accessible phone number intelligence helps financial institutions more accurately assess risk by flagging unallocated, premium, suspicious or recently ported phone numbers. 

To learn more about how fintech institutions are utilizing the phone number to help them fight fraud, read our recently published Use Case for more information.