Announcing New Mobile Intelligence Packages in the Twilio Lookup API

Announcing New Mobile Intelligence Packages in the Twilio Lookup API

Today, we are excited to announce that Twilio will make your onboarding experiences and digital identity checks a whole lot smarter with new mobile intelligence packages launching in Beta in the Twilio Lookup API – Line Type Intelligence and SIM Swap. Lookup has long-provided key insights into a users’ phone numbers with the Lookup Format, Caller Name, and Carrier Lookup packages, and this release marks a significant expansion of that data.

The Need for Mobile Intelligence

User growth is a primary goal when building any application, platform, or service. But gone are the days of unrestricted growth.

Organizations face scrutiny from investors concerned that fake accounts could be skewing growth metrics and end users and regulators worried about bots or fraudsters putting platform integrity at risk. Security must be considered a key part of building a positive user experience, specifically the onboarding experience.

Enhancing security without increasing friction can be a challenge if your business doesn't have the proper signals and insights. Mobile number intelligence allows you to know if a user is trustworthy–line type of a number, number possession checks such as SIM swap detection, international number formatting, caller name identification, and carrier checks–all critical signals often left out of the verification equation. 

By the end of 2021, 5.3 billion people had subscribed to mobile services according to GSMA (and most of those people are no-doubt unable to leave home without their device), the mobile phone has become the key to users’ digital lives and the best way to reach and verify those users accurately.

This mobile device ubiquity is what makes mobile intelligence data so impactful. Teams can build smooth onboarding experiences with confidence, knowing they can quickly detect when a fraudster may be at work.

Line Type Intelligence

Lookup Line Type Intelligence marks the evolution of Carrier Lookup. Line Type Intelligence leverages a variety of telecom industry data sources and our proprietary mapping of VoIP service providers that is continually updated and maintained. This provides a unique and authoritative view on the use and line type of a phone number returning 11 different types–from fixed VoIP and non-fixed VoIP numbers to landlines, toll-free, shared cost numbers, and more. This helps to identify potentially risky users while reducing friction for those legitimate ones.

There is a lot you can learn from a phone number. At Twilio, we’ve worked closely with a number of organizations–from high-growth startups to major enterprises–who rely on phone verification at signup. We’ve learned from this work that, for instance, VoIP phone numbers are often used to create fake accounts and commit fraud, resulting in skewed growth metrics, plus financial and reputational damage.

And while VoIP numbers present fraud risk, other line types, such as landlines, present risk to the user experience. If a valid user is allowed to signup with a landline, that user won’t be able to receive SMS, cutting off a key channel for customer engagement. This has the potential to frustrate users and cause abandonment.

Line Type Intelligence is currently in Public Beta. Learn how you can use it to detect and filter out VoIP numbers before sending SMS one-time passcodes (OTPs).

SIM Swap

SIM swap fraud is an increasingly common attack vector, and this type of fraud occurs when a scammer hijacks a victim’s mobile phone number to take over their online accounts. Lookup SIM Swap provides real-time authoritative data, directly sourced from mobile network operators to determine if the SIM linked to a mobile phone number has recently changed.

This gives you the assurance that a user’s device has not been compromised and that the mobile channel can be used for communications or authentication with that user. While SIM swaps are a common, typically benign occurrence, a swap detected prior to a high-value transaction may indicate a fraudster at work. And while Lookup SIM Swap is currently in Private Beta, once you have requested access, it’s dead simple to get going. It even supports data residency in Twilio’s Ireland Region to help meet data compliance regulations, as shown in the code sample below.

Sample request:

Sample response:

Additional new releases for Lookup

Beyond SIM Swap and Line Type Intelligence, Twilio is also releasing a UK-only, Private Beta of Lookup Call Forwarding, which returns the real-time, unconditional call forwarding status of a mobile number from MNOs to let you know if a phone number’s calls are being forwarded. A user who is unknowingly forwarding calls to a different number or device presents a couple of issues: intercepted voice OTPs and the potential inability to receive time-sensitive support or reminder calls to their original number.

Talk to your Twilio representative for more information on accessing this package in the UK.

Look forward to more Lookup

The need for mobile intelligence data is growing every day. As users continue to engage with the digital world mobile-first, Twilio will continue to bolster its Lookup signals. Keep up with Lookup and request a call with a specialist. If you want to start building right away, access the API docs here. We can’t wait to see what you build.