Fergal Parkinson
Published on: May 7, 2024
Account fraud has become a widespread problem that affects both individuals and businesses. Fraudsters constantly evolve their tactics, utilising advanced techniques to deceive security measures and gain unauthorised access to sensitive information.
To combat this ever-growing threat, organisations are turning to innovative solutions such as mobile number risk scoring.
The risk of account fraud has risen exponentially with a recent survey finding that 29% of people have experienced account takeover fraud which is an increase from 22% in 2021.
Fraudsters use sophisticated methods to bypass security measures, including stolen credentials, identity theft, and social engineering. Traditional identity verification methods such as usernames and passwords alone are no longer sufficient in preventing fraudulent activities.
The digital age brings convenience and accessibility, but it also brings inherent risks. As technology advances, so do the tactics employed by fraudsters.
Fraudsters are adept at exploiting weaknesses in traditional identity verification processes. They exploit loopholes and use stolen or fake identities to gain access to accounts and sensitive information.
Organisations must continuously adapt their security measures to keep pace with the evolving threat landscape. Mobile number risk scoring provides an extra layer of defence by enabling real-time risk assessment of the trustworthiness of a mobile number based on real-time and historical data.
Mobile phone number risk scoring is a powerful tool that assesses the trustworthiness of a given number, by analysing various data points, both historical and in real-time. This allows users to make reliable and informed decisions about potential customers.
Mobile numbers serve as a unique identifier, connecting various aspects of a user’s digital identity. It is closely tied to email accounts, social media profiles, financial transactions, and more. This integration makes mobiles number a valuable asset in verifying users’ authenticity.
Risk scoring involves analysing a multitude of data points associated with a mobile number to determine its trustworthiness. These data points may include the age of the phone number, carrier information, past usage patterns, and associations with fraudulent activities. By assessing these factors, a reputation score is assigned to each number, indicating the level of risk it presents.
Mobile numbers play a critical role in verifying user identities. They serve as an additional layer of authentication, providing organisations with a reliable and consistent data point to verify the ownership and authenticity of an account.
By cross-referencing mobile number reputation scores with other identity verification measures, organisations can ensure a higher level of security while minimising the friction experienced by legitimate users.
When it comes to phone number reputation scoring, various data points are considered. The data that is used within the score algorithm includes many real-time indicators that show not only if a number is valid, but whether it is in long-term, regular and in constant use. This helps defeat attempts to use ‘disposable clean numbers’ to facilitate fraud.
By analysing these data points holistically, organisations gain valuable insights into the trustworthiness of a phone number.
Mobile number reputation scores provide a quantifiable measure of risk associated with a particular number.
Businesses can establish custom thresholds and rules to determine how the reputation scores are interpreted, allowing them to make informed decisions regarding user authentication and risk mitigation.
TMT Score uses a range of both deterministic and probabilistic data to evaluate the trustworthiness of a number. Both can be considered by the algorithm to build a nuanced picture of a number’s history and reliability in milliseconds.
Score’s algorithm is constantly being refined: as we see more numbers, build more history and call out more suspicious behaviour, we learn and improve our detection capabilities still further.
Integrating mobile number reputation scoring into existing systems is a straightforward process. Our API-based solution is readily available, allowing organisations to seamlessly incorporate reputation scores into their identity verification workflows.
By leveraging these solutions, organisations can enhance security without major disruptions to their existing infrastructure or user experience.
To ensure a seamless implementation of mobile number reputation scoring, organisations should consider a few best practices.
These include defining clear goals and objectives, understanding the unique requirements of the business, selecting a reliable provider, and gradually integrating reputation scoring into existing systems.
Regular monitoring and fine-tuning of the system are also essential to optimise performance.
Mobile number reputation scoring offers numerous benefits in the fight against account fraud. These include:
Enhanced security: By verifying the trustworthiness of a provided number, organisations can significantly reduce the risk of fraudulent activities and unauthorised access.
Improved user experience: Leveraging mobile phone number reputation scoring allows businesses to streamline the identity verification process, providing a smoother experience for legitimate users.
Cost and time savings: By automating the risk assessment process, organisations can save time and resources compared to traditional manual verification methods.
Real-time risk assessment: Number reputation scoring enables organisations to assess risk in real-time, facilitating prompt actions to prevent fraudulent activities.
Scalability: The use of advanced algorithms in number reputation scoring enables organisations to handle a large volume of identities and transactions efficiently.
Compliance with regulations: Organisations can meet regulatory requirements by providing robust identity verification measures and the flexibility allows for compliance across different jurisdictions.
Within a comprehensive fraud prevention strategy, mobile number reputation scoring plays a pivotal role in verifying user identities and detecting potential account takeovers. By integrating phone number analysis into the overall strategy organisations can perform account and customer checks in in a matter of seconds, supporting their obligations to perform Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) checks.
Using a mobile number scoring API allows organisations to analyse multiple data points in real-time, which can act as indications as to how likely the number provided is to commit fraud. This includes aspects like linked email accounts, social media profiles and changes in device usage behaviour, all of which are extremely hard to manipulate.
While mobile number reputation scoring offers many benefits privacy concerns and regulatory compliance must be considered. Organisations can overcome these challenges through rigorous data validation processes, transparent privacy practices, and adherence to regulatory guidelines to stay compliant.
The link between security and customer satisfaction is undeniable. Through enhancing customer trust with quick and effective number-scoring checks customers have increased confidence in an organisation’s products or services.
Account checks based on number scoring can be integrated into your existing customer onboarding and login processes, meaning that they can be carried out in a matter of seconds and without your customer knowing. This is not only much quicker than current options such as address verification or ID document uploads but also more accurate.
The significant growth of account takeover attacks demands that businesses take a proactive and comprehensive response to protect their customers. Emphasising the importance of proactivity, organisations must prioritise the deployment of phone number reputation scoring to combat account takeovers.
For more information on how to implement our number scoring technology contact a member of our verification team today.
Last updated on May 7, 2024
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