Today we’re glad to introduce you to Lookup, an API that can programmatically determine number format, type, country, and carrier for any phone number worldwide. With this detailed information about a phone number, you can assess risk, prevent fraud, block fake accounts, and increase acquisition – all without relying on customer input.
Lookup has several different tiers of information available based upon the level of detail you require. We’ll cover each of these in more detail, but in summary, they are: Phone Number Country & Format Phone Number Type Carrier and Network
With Lookup, you can minimize delivery errors by determining whether a phone number is valid before including the consumer in your contact list, ensuring clean data and reduced errors. The lookup also helps with increasing conversion rates, as it helps businesses segregate landline from mobile numbers, so they can pick the right channel for their messages and calls to ensure the best conversion rates. Furthermore, businesses can also assess risk by comparing the IP location and phone number’s country along with other details of the customer, to trigger additional steps and set up two-factor authentication as needed.
What is phone number validation?
Here’s a breakdown of the information that Lookup can retrieve about a phone number:
Phone Number Country & Format
Numbers can be written in many formats, depending on the country. And determining the country a number belongs to and its local format helps improve your overall experience with customers. With Lookup, MOBtexting will properly format possible phone numbers for a given region automatically, using length and prefix. This means systematically ensuring that the numbers you select are the most familiar to locals.
Phone Number Type
You can improve deliverability by looking up number types that don’t accept all communications. For example, most landline numbers and many VoIP numbers do not accept SMS messages. With Lookup, you can better identify which kind of communications users can accept, based on their number type. This allows businesses to recognize when an alternative delivery method may be needed to successfully send voice and messaging communications.
Carrier and Network
And finally, Lookup helps businesses identify the carrier behind the phone number to learn which users are more likely to be legitimate. This may be one of the most valuable use-cases of Lookup API as it relates to your fraud detection and risk management process. Is the number valid, is it reachable, and does the carrier location match other location information you have for the user? These are all examples of questions you could use within your risk scoring process during registration.
If you’re ready to get started, feel free to check out our API documentation, and relay any questions to our dedicated Support Teams. You can also reach out to your dedicated account representative if you’re interested.
