Telephone Identification - Fraud Library

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Telephone Identification, Phone Type Verification, TNI, telephone authentication, Phone Identification

Telephone identifcation is the process of determining the type of phone being used by a consumer or end user. This technique looks up the phone number to determine where it was provisioned, and the type of phone it is associated with.

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A practical means of verification ...

Telephone identifcation is the process of determining the type of phone being used by a consumer or end user. This technique looks up the phone number to determine where it was provisioned, and the type of phone it is associated with.

How Good Is It? 

Telephone identification, or TNI, serves several important functions. First it authenticates that the number is a real "dialable" phone number. Second it will let you know where the phone was provisioned, the country, region, and city. Lastly, and most importantly it will tell you the type of phone the number is assigned to.

NOTE: This is typically an inexpensive service and when coupled with other techniques, it can provide a nice return for the money spent to perform the check.

“Gotchas” with phone identification include:

• There are very few resources for this type of service, and once outside the US, the number is increasingly smaller.
• Make sure the service distingues fixed VOIP, like Vonage, versus non-fixed VOIP, like Skype.
• On mobile phones, not all prepaid phones will be distingued as such, and some may look like regular mobile phones.

Considerations When Implementing or Buying This Functionality    

Available as a hosted bureau service.

Common Phone types: fixed line, mobile, prepaid mobile, fixed VOIP, non-fixed VOIP, payphone, private number, government line.

• What countries are supported?
• How does the service handle unkown numbers?
• Look into name, address and phone authentication as well.
• Look into phone verification.

Estimated Costs – Typically this service is offered on a per-transaction basis. This service is usually fairly inexpensive for USA, and the price can vary dramtically based on the countries you do busines in.

Alternative Solutions – Area code mapping, identity authentication, reverse phone lookups.

Vendors –MaxMind , TARGUSinfo, Telesign

How Does it Work?  

At a minimum you would provide a phone number, and in some cases the country where the number is supposedly from. The service than returns information back about that phone number. These services are real time services.

How Do I Use the Results?  

Not all phone types have the same level of risk, you will have to determine which phone types indicate higher risk to your organization. We would strongly reccomend you combine the TNI results with other forms of authentication.

Building This In-House 

N/A.

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