Businesses Now Authorized to Leverage Number Porting Information for Fraud Mitigation and Risk Assessment

 BRIDGEWATER, N.J. – August 21, 2019 – Mobile phone numbers now rival social security and driver license numbers as the personal identifier that consumers use to register for products and services. That ubiquity makes mobile numbers an attractive and powerful tool for identity thieves, who stole $14.7 billion in 2018 from 14.4 million U.S. consumers.

Now, with the introduction of PortData Validate from iconectiv, financial institutions, healthcare providers and other authorized businesses can leverage telephone number porting data as part of their assessment when verifying a customer’s identity, approving a transaction or disclosing information. The data, exclusively available from iconectiv or an authorized reseller of iconectiv’s PortData Validate service, is the nation’s only authorized service for businesses who need access to accurate and up-to-date phone number porting information for fraud mitigation and risk assessment.

“Recognizing the key role that number porting data plays in helping businesses verify the authenticity of telephone number-based transactions, this data can now be used for fraud mitigation and risk assessment purposes,” said Kathy Timko, Head of the Local Number Portability Administration (LNPA) Services at iconectiv. “This new access to porting data will further help protect customers and businesses against fraud.” 

PortData Validate will provide information that businesses can use to assess risk before confirming a transaction by identifying the current service provider associated with a telephone number and recent porting activity. Additionally, contact centers can leverage PortData Validate to mitigate the risk of identity theft and other fraudulent activity and, if needed, take additional steps to validate a caller’s identity.

PortData Validate is available in three subscription types: Direct, Reseller and Indirect. All three include access to the data via the Notify service, which provides number porting changes at subscriber-determined intervals. The optional Query service enables Direct and Indirect subscribers to access the most recent number porting information via an online query. 

As the world leader in numbering, iconectiv has successfully deployed solutions around the globe and has been a long-standing part of the U.S. telecommunications landscape, including the number portability ecosystem since its inception.  As the Local Number Portability Administrator (LNPA) for the United States, iconectiv manages the nation’s Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC). The largest database of ported telephone numbers in the world, the U.S. NPAC includes more than 650 million telephone numbers for 1,600 service providers and providers of telecom-related services.

For more information visit https://portdata.numberportability.com.