In today’s digital era, cyberattacks are continuously on the rise, with many businesses and individuals falling prey to fraud and scams, resulting in financial and legal ramifications. Every day, we hear about a new and more advanced type of fraud, scam, or cyberattack. This is because cybercriminals and fraudsters have adapted sophisticated technologies to perpetrate attacks, making detecting and preventing fraud difficult. Fortunately, cutting-edge tools, technologies, and methods are available to combat fraud efficiently and effectively. For instance, a numlookup API has emerged as a powerful tool for preventing fraud by verifying and validating phone numbers.
With the increasing popularity and usage of phone number lookup tools and APIs, people are constantly wondering how a numlookup API exactly helps with fraud prevention. How do I use a phone number look up free? Which is the most reliable phone numlookup API? Read on, as this article will answer all these questions.
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What Is A Numlookup API?
A number lookup or reverse phone lookup API is an application programming interface that enables users to validate and verify cell phone numbers. Users basically have to provide a phone number they want to verify, and the API will retrieve information regarding that number. The information typically includes location data, carrier details, line type, and time zone information. Advanced and reliable APIs also validate the number, confirming whether the number is active and formatted correctly. These APIs source data from numerous public directories and databases with millions of numbers to provide accurate information.
Why Is Phone Number Verification Essential?
In the past, businesses and companies used to verify only emails to confirm the identity of users. Email verification, which involves ensuring the validity of an email address, is convenient for customers and involves almost no costs. However, the problem with email verification was that creating a fake email ID was way too simple and easy. Hence, fraudsters could easily use fake IDs for identity theft and impersonate customers.
With scams and frauds becoming rife, strict security measures and identity verification have become the need of the hour. Hence, worldwide businesses increasingly opt for phone number verification to confirm customers’ identities. For instance, companies verify a customer-provided phone number’s identity, ownership, and validity using numlookup tools to ensure all numbers in their database are genuine and prevent fraud. Phone number confirmation is also widely used for multi-factor (MFA) and 2-factor authentication (2FA). These methods use multiple data points to verify customers’ identity, such as passcode, email, and phone number.
Some advantages of phone number verification include:
- Compared to email IDs, phone numbers are harder to steal. They are unique, and impersonating someone using phone numbers requires advanced skills, access, and knowledge.
- People generally act instantly if their phone number is stolen. Hence, it’s difficult for malicious actors to carry out fraud by stealing customers’ phone numbers.
- Phone number verification is quick and easy. Using reliable numlookup tools, companies can instantly confirm the validity and ownership of phone numbers and retrieve valuable information that can help identify and prevent fraud.
- Companies can use phone numbers as an additional factor to confirm the identity of customers. For instance, they can verify both email addresses and phone numbers to prevent fraud.
How Can a Numlookup API Help With Fraud Prevention?
As aforementioned, a numlookup API allows you to confirm the validity and format of a phone number and provides valuable information associated with the number, such as carrier details, location information, line type, etc. This valuable information can help with fraud prevention in several ways:
User Identity Confirmation
Businesses can match the information provided by a reverse phone number lookup API, such as location data, with the information provided by the customer while registering an account. If they don’t match, companies can flag the number and take more measures to confirm the customer’s identity before granting access.
Identify Fake Orders and Prevent Chargebacks
E-commerce businesses often deal with fake orders, resulting in chargebacks and financial losses. For instance, it’s common practice for fraudsters to use fake phone numbers to create fake accounts and place orders. Once they receive the product, they initiate chargebacks/dispute the transaction, claiming they didn’t make the purchase. However, using phone number lookup API, companies can match the information provided by the customer while placing the order with the data returned by the API to identify and flag fake orders.
Identify Suspicious Phone Calls
Fraudsters also try this trick of calling businesses to convince them that their order is legitimate. However, using phone number lookup API, companies can easily check whether the information returned against the phone number matches the billing information. Moreover, businesses can identify suspicious phone numbers by cross-referencing with blacklists to avoid potential scams. They can also flag the individuals calling from specific phone numbers.
Prevent Fake Returns
Scammers often also use fake phone numbers, asking for returns or refunds for items they never purchased. However, identity verification through phone numbers can save businesses from such fraud.
Avoid Vendor Scams
Another common fraud in the realm of business is that scammers use fake numbers and act as legitimate suppliers or vendors, requesting payments for fake invoices. Verifying and validating phone numbers and associated information using a numlookup API can help businesses prevent such scams.
Numveify – The Most Reliable Numlookup API For Detecting and Preventing Fraud
Numverify is one of the most reliable and trusted phone number validation and free reverse phone lookup APIs. The RESTful API is super easy to integrate into apps and delivers accurate results within milliseconds in JSON format. It is used by thousands of businesses worldwide for various purposes, from fraud prevention to preventing undelivered messages sent to incorrect or fake numbers.
Among the highlighted features of the Numverify API are:
- The API supports phone number validation right at the point of entry into the system. Hence, it helps businesses maintain a clean database with authentic numbers.
- The API returns highly reliable data associated with a given phone number, including country and location information and carrier details. It also supports line type detection, including landline numbers, mobile phones, business numbers, toll-free Numbers, and more.
- Numverify supports as many as 232 countries worldwide, including the USA, Albania, Spain, Brazil, and more, allowing you to validate and verify almost any number.
- The powerful API supports both the local and international formats of a number. Frequently updated international phone numbering plans power its format validation system.
- The numverify API has extensive documentation that provides all the information regarding the API methods, endpoints, and parameters to help you get started quickly.
- The API offers a free plan that doesn’t require any credit card. It also has several flexible pricing plans offering more API calls and premium features.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is there a way to identify unknown callers?
Several Caller ID and phone number online lookup tools allow you to identify the caller, block future calls from a given number, and report suspicious phone calls.
Is there a free phone number search and lookup tool?
Numverify is a reliable phone number validation and lookup API that you can integrate into your apps to validate a phone number and retrieve associated information, such as line type, carrier information, and location data.
Which is the best reverse phone lookup free for fraud prevention?
Numverify is a leading phone number lookup API that helps prevent fraud by validating phone numbers and providing helpful information associated with them. The API also offers a completely free plan.
Sign up for numverify API and prevent scams and fraud today!
