How Can Phone Validators Help Businesses in 2020
TechsPlace | Identity theft remains a pernicious problem in the e-commerce world. It affects all stakeholders: consumers, businesses, and financial institutions. In 2018, around 14.4 million consumers were victimized by fraudsters, which is worth $3.4 billion in losses for businesses. Nearly three out of ten victims pay up for transactions fraudulently done under their name, not to mention the damage it causes their credit history.
Although the most common targets are credit cards, student loans, mortgages, and car loans, any online transaction can be targeted. Identity validation, verification, and authentication are critical components in the fight against identity fraud. And these can be achieved through different methods.
Phone validation: Extra layer of security
Back in the days, businesses relied on email validation to prove users’ identities during new account sign-ups. Although this verification method still works, the proliferation of fake accounts purposefully created by cyber-crooks reduces its reliability. These fraudulent accounts are what hackers and cyber-criminals use to steal someone’s identity; create fake social media accounts to troll, spam, or attack other users; and skirt promotional offers that rely on email addresses.
Creating multiple email accounts is pretty straightforward and costs almost nothing, hence, it’s unabated prevalence even to this year. Many cybercriminals use fake email as their first step in stealing other people’s identity. There are even automated software bots that can create an unlimited supply of fake profiles, which they can then use to exploit applications that rely on email validation.
These fraudulent activities have led businesses to a more secure user validation process –phone validation.
According to the developers of phone validator, Byteplant, phone verification offers better security and protection for businesses and consumers. This is because phone numbers often require users to go through a stringent verification process before they can get a phone subscription and number. With this method, you are assured that only “real” humans can sign up and access your services.
With phone validation, users are required to supply their phone number instead of the usual email address. The phone validator tool then verifies the existence and ownership of the phone number. This gives businesses an added layer of protection.
Phone validator’s work has a two-fold function: verifying the correctness of phone numbers and authenticating its user. The tool collects the number during account creation or sign up, and then sends a time-sensitive code either as an SMS message or voice prompt. The user then types back the code into the application to verify his or her identity. Once the process is completed, the phone number is validated and becomes automatically linked to the user account.
By 2020, smartphone owners are expected to reach 3.5 billion or nearly a third of the worldwide population. The ubiquity of smartphones makes phone validation globally accessible. Phone validators can deliver phone authentication security codes around the world. Likewise, this tool can also validate landline numbers by sending an automated voice message of the code to the user. This validation process is a cost-effective security strategy and is fast becoming the preferred verification method of many businesses.
Many large companies, such as Google, Twitter, and Microsoft, are now using phone validation at account creation and other transactions that require confirmation of identity. Tech specialists consider phone number validation useful not just in beefing up security but also in account recovery.
Most common uses of phone validators
There are many ways phone validators help businesses. Here are some of its common uses and benefits to businesses.
Authenticate registration
Phone validation can help businesses authenticate the identity of every user before account creation. This ensures that they are declaring their personal information truthfully. As mentioned above, this step automatically links the phone number and device to the user account.
Authorize transactions and services
Once an account is compromised or accessed by an unauthorized user, it can easily complete tasks or services available through the platform, such as purchases, password reset, upgrades, fund transfer, etc. With phone validation, the application will require the user to enter the security code before the transaction is approved. This extra layer of security renders hackers useless without your mobile phone.
Account reactivation or recovery
In case a user lost his password, businesses can use a phone validator to verify account reactivation or recovery. It can prevent hackers and spammers from accessing user accounts. Likewise, phone validation can be used to verify users who wish to sign in after a long period of inactivity.
Update user details
Changes in account details should be carefully vetted. With a phone validator, you can ensure that the account updates are initiated by the real owner. For instance, a lender can release information about the client’s account only if they can authenticate the contact information.
Reduce suspicious activity
Phone validators allow businesses to confirm transactions in real-time. Before users can proceed with an activity, they need to authenticate their identity using the one-time password (OTP) sent via SMS. This validation method can help greatly reduce suspicious activities and fraud resolution.
Ensure effective mobile marketing
Phone verification is also vital in ensuring a successful mobile marketing campaign. With this tool, you can categorize contacts in your list and remove invalid, inactive, and unresponsive accounts. As a result, you don’t waste your time and effort on these numbers. You can focus on active users who have higher chances of conversion.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, phone validators are vital in reducing fraudulent signups, transactions, and access to your business portals. Not validating new accounts poses risks to your business, negatively impacts your brand, and drains your marketing resources. Furthermore, verification of user activities helps ensure that they are initiated by the real account owners. This is essential to protect your clients, your business data, and your brand.
Phone validation offers the best protection by augmenting the vulnerabilities of email verification and other conventional account authentication methods.
Maria has been writing articles for 5 years. She specializes in business and marketing. On her free time she loves to read and write about her travel experiences. You can find her doing this by the beach.
