Fergal Parkinson
Published on: March 23, 2022
70% of financial fraud involves identity theft where fraudsters pose as someone else. Over the last couple of years, businesses have had to change the way they operate. Unfortunately, so have fraudsters.
As more people choose to conduct financial transactions online rather than in person, they’re doing so in increasing numbers on their mobile devices. As a result, a growing number of malicious actors are targeting this vector.
Getting security right starts with proper customer onboarding in banking and other financial services. In other words, you need a structured, technology-driven customer onboarding process.
Customer onboarding in financial services is a much more critical function compared to other industries. Digital onboarding procedures involve many compliance and data-gathering steps. At the same time, friction must be reduced to ensure users complete the process as seamlessly as possible.
One of the most important aspects of the customer onboarding process is getting to Know Your Customer (KYC). KYC involves the processes used to verify users’ identities and confirm that people are who they say they are. It is pivotal in combating fraud, identity theft and money laundering. Most fintech apps don’t allow users to perform transactions until they pass all KYC checks.
There are many ways to perform KYC checks, including passport and other identity checks. Unfortunately, malicious actors have become increasingly clever in thwarting them, using sophisticated techniques to fool companies.
To combat this, many companies are looking at additional alternative data sources to verify and authenticate users above the standard required checks. With the increasing use of mobiles, a simple mobile number using live telco data can identify if a person is who they say they are.
Using a customer’s mobile number enables organisations to obtain rich and actionable data intelligence to strengthen and validate the user verification process, reduce fake accounts, give risk insights, improve conversations, and determine the optimal channel for message delivery, such as one-time passwords or two-factor authentication SMS.
Mobile device intelligence is a set of robust phone and mobile signals that can be synthesised and analysed to provide insights for identity verification, identity authentication and fraud prevention.
Signals might include how long a potential customer has had their mobile phone number, whether it is active, and whether it matches the name and address they have provided. Phone signals may also include change events such as:
Phone signals could also include account takeover events like SIM swaps, as well as the velocity and behaviour of these change events.
Phone intelligence supports a more sophisticated, private and secure model of identity verification. It can replace several traditional authentication and verification techniques including security questions, SMS one-time passcodes, passwords, biometrics and document scanning.
With diverse signals, you can create the highest correlation between identity and trust. These signals create a customer’s digital footprint — highly correlated with the identity and trustworthiness of a particular individual.
As a company performing KYC checks, it’s vital those signals have maximum accuracy and effect. You must compare them with other authoritative data sources such as information from credit risk and scoring companies. Combined with phone intelligence, this kind of data can give you powerful insights as to whether a customer’s identity is accurate.
Most smartphones have built-in passive authentication, encryption and privacy features. Phone intelligence doesn’t require your customers to download an app or purchase hardware. These built-in features enable smartphones to provide digital authentication invisibly and seamlessly, right on your customers’ existing mobile devices. A KYC user flow that eliminates or minimises points of friction is obviously better for conversion and compliance alike.
There are many ways your company can use mobile phone intelligence. Popular use cases include:
Phone intelligence signals work across mobile interactions, web support and call centre channels. With mobile number intelligence, your organisation becomes more responsive and flexible. Access to real-time data empowers you to focus your energy on upselling, cross-selling and capitalising on opportunities with real customers.
Fraud can come from every angle. Mobile devices have made it easier and faster for criminals to conduct malicious activities including account takeovers, identity theft, transaction fraud and promotion abuse. Fintech companies must therefore develop a mobile-first strategy for fraud protection.
With our Verify platform, you’ll have access to a suite of services that help fight fraud, strengthen digital onboarding for financial services, reduce fake accounts and mitigate fraud — all while adding little to no friction to your users’ onboarding experience.
Verify combines several authoritative data sources with our deep knowledge of the global mobile telephony landscape. Our platform has wide geographical coverage and is engineered to respond to millions of queries per second. Many of our available data points are sourced globally, meaning there’s no need to adjust your onboarding or fraud prevention workflow as you expand into new markets.
When using Verify to secure your digital onboarding platform, you can learn key facts about who’s on the line, including whether their data is real and active, and whether it matches existing verified personal information such as an address or date of birth.
It’s more important than ever for financial services companies to understand how to interact well with mobile customers during the onboarding process. An effective digital onboarding process requires knowing that a person is using an active number, that their identity is authentic, and which network they’re using.
Please contact us to learn more about the fastest and most accurate data and technology available for mobile number intelligence in fintech onboarding.
Last updated on June 23, 2026
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