Telecom Fraud & SIM Swap Detection | AI Identity Verification | Socure
Accelerate account activation across all channels
Drive higher conversions with AI-powered identity verification that streamlines onboarding, prevents fraud, and delivers a seamless experience whether customers sign up online, in-store, or through partners.
OVERVIEW
Telco providers face a myriad of fraud, risk, and operational challenges that hinder their ability to grow and serve customers effectively. The complexity of managing activations across multiple channels — online, in-store, and partner retailers — leads to duplicate records and inconsistent user experiences, frustrating both customers and employees. Adding to the challenge are traditional verification methods that struggle with hard-to-reach users, such as Gen Z, immigrants, and those with thin credit files, often delaying activations or leading to false declines. And this is all happening in an era where customer expectations for speed, security, and convenience are higher than ever before.
Opportunity
Gain a holistic view of customers, validate their authenticity and historical behavior, and protect your business across every activation channel with advanced identity verification and fraud prevention models. This approach ensures you can accurately approve legitimate customers — including hard-to-verify groups like Gen Z and thin-credit file populations — while proactively identifying no-use-no-pay and never-pay offenders. The result? Faster activations, fewer losses, and an improved user experience across digital, in-store, and reseller touchpoints. With Socure, streamline your onboarding process, protect your bottom line, and empower your team to grow your customer base with confidence.
98% auto-approval rate for good customers
96% approval rate for hard-to-verify groups like Gen-Z and thin credit file individuals
150MS
DECISION TIME
HOW WE HELP
Frictionless new account activations
- Accelerate onboarding across digital, in-store, and reseller channels with automated risk assessment
- Approve more hard-to-verify applicants including younger and new-to-country customers through enhanced coverage
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Socure Verify+ for precise, accurate, and inclusive identity verification and PII verification
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Address RiskScore to instantly predict the risk connected with physical addresses
Watchlist Screening with Monitoring for sanctions screening, PEP, and adverse media risk management
Stop repeat offenders
- Block known fraudsters using custom models that flag no-use-no-pay and never-pay histories
- Identify high-risk applications at the top of funnel through comprehensive fraud screening
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Minimize fraud loss
- Prevent first-party and synthetic identity fraud during activation without adding friction
- Reduce false positives through AI-powered risk assessment across all touchpoints
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Sigma Synthetic Fraud for uncovering complex manipulated and fabricated synthetic identity fraud
Prevent SIM swap fraud across all user channels
- Block SIM swap attempts in real-time using device analytics and behavioral patterns
- Verify high-risk requests through instant ID and selfie checks when additional authentication is needed
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Phone RiskScore to instantly predict risk and verify phone ownership
FAQ
What is telecom fraud, and how can it impact providers and customers?
Fraudsters use unauthorized or deceptive actions to exploit vulnerabilities in telecommunication systems and carry out scams such as no-use-no-pay and never-pay fraud or use services in other ways that contravene terms and conditions. Telecom fraud, sometimes called telco fraud, can affect cell phone providers, landline operators, PBX systems, or ISPs. For providers, these telecom fraud attacks lead to substantial financial losses, reputational harm, additional operational expenses, and limited growth. Meanwhile, customers also face losses and compromised information. With telecommunications fraud increasing by 12% from 2021 to 2023, resulting in an estimated $38.95 billion loss and accounting for 2.5% of the industry’s revenues, robust fraud prevention solutions to protect businesses and safely open accounts for more new customers are clear and urgent.
Why is it critical for telecom providers to balance fraud prevention with customer experience?
Today’s customers expect speed, security, and convenience as standard. Industry research indicates that 65% of customers will give up on trying to open an account when faced with excessive friction. At the same time, becoming a victim of fraud means 91% will abandon a company’s platform for good. For telecom providers, this presents a tricky dilemma: the need to establish effective telecom fraud and risk prevention strategies without compromising the customer experience and impacting their ability to grow. The solution lies in implementing AI-driven identity verification tools like Socure, which can effectively verify identities, streamline activations, and detect fraud in real-time online, in-store, or through partner channels, without affecting the user experience. This is particularly essential for verifying younger and difficult-to-identify customers with thin credit files. Within these populations, Socure achieves customer onboarding rates of up to 93% for individuals aged 18-25 while upholding strong fraud prevention measures.
What is SIM swap fraud, and how does it threaten telecom customers?
SIM swap fraud happens when scammers manipulate mobile service providers into moving a victim’s phone number to a SIM card they control. Once they have the phone number, these fraudsters can intercept calls, messages, and most importantly, one-time passwords sent via SMS for two-factor authentication. This enables them to bypass security protocols and access victims’ bank accounts, social media, cryptocurrency wallets, and other sensitive accounts that use phone-based verification. According to FBI statistics, SIM swap attacks led to $72 million being stolen from victims in 2022, and a significant rise in the $12 million total lost to SIM swaps over the three years from January 2018 to December 2020. For telecom companies, SIM swap fraud not only causes substantial financial losses but also harms customer trust and brand image. Socure’s PhoneRiskScore helps prevent these attacks with real-time sim swap detection and improved identity verification measures that can identify suspicious SIM changes before criminals can take advantage of them.
How can telecom companies detect SIM swaps in real time?
Telecom firms can prevent telecom fraud with effective SIM swap detection by using Socure’s device and behavioral analytics, historical data, and AI-powered fraud pattern recognition. Socure’s hyper-accurate ID and selfie ID verification kick in seamlessly when step-up checks are needed. This proactive sim swap detection strategy safeguards legitimate customers, ensures KYC compliance, and disrupts telecom fraud before it starts.
How can identity verification solutions help telecom providers grow their user base securely?
Socure’s identity verification solution assists telecom companies in broadening their customer base with advanced identity verification and telecom fraud prevention models to gain a 360° view of customers. Among its many capabilities, Socure offers:
- Predictive DocV to provide hyper-accurate, real-time document and biometric verification
- Risk Scores for detecting compromised identity elements – including email addresses and devices – that point to identity theft
- Alert List to access Socure’s consortium database of known harmful and fraudulent identities
The platform effectively identifies no-use-no-pay and never-pay users while achieving customer onboarding rates of up to 93% for the challenging 18-25 age group and verifying over 70% of 18-year-olds opening their first accounts, surpassing other providers by at least 30%. What’s more, with coverage in more than 44 countries and support for various language scripts, Socure enables providers to confidently verify customer identities internationally, reducing manual reviews by 98% and boosting auto-approvals by 30%. With Socure, you can enable quicker activations, reduce telecom fraud losses, and keep customers happy across all touchpoints.
Why is Socure the trusted choice for telecom fraud prevention?
Socure is recognized as the reliable option for preventing telecom fraud due to its top-tier accuracy and extensive coverage. The metrics speak for themselves:
- Reduces manual reviews by 98%
- Increases auto-approvals by 30% compared to other solutions
- 94% approval rate for hard-to-verify groups like Gen-Z and thin credit file individuals
- Sub-150ms decision time
- Socure draws on a unique database of over 8 billion records linked to more than 1 billion verified good and bad identities, ensuring unparalleled identity verification confidence.
- Trusted by over 2,800 clients, including four of the top five banks.
Socure has a proven track record of aiding organizations in safely expanding while preventing telecom fraud. Our custom telecom fraud model makes it simple to assess the risk of activations, identify bad actors with a no-use-no-pay or never-pay history, and quickly onboard more genuine customers across digital, in-store, and reseller channels. Socure also streamlines compliance processes and mitigates risk with automated, intelligent solutions that meet regulatory compliance needs.
This all-encompassing strategy allows telecom providers to confidently verify identities and stop first-party, third-party, and synthetic identity fraud before it starts while delivering the smooth experience customers expect.
Explore RiskOS® Use Cases
End-to-end fraud, risk, and compliance solutions
Consumer onboarding
Making the right decisions for a consumer you’ve never seen before shouldn’t be complicated.
Business onboarding
Trust & safety
Login & authentication
Bank account verification
Consumer onboarding
Making the right decisions for a consumer you’ve never seen before shouldn’t be complicated.
Business onboarding
Verify more good businesses for underwriting, tax registration, and credit assessment.
Trust & safety
Keep your community safe and thriving with instant, accurate user verification.
Login & authentication
Deliver frictionless authentication at onboarding, login, multi-factor authentication, high-risk transactions, and account recovery.
Explore login & authentication
Bank account verification
Convert more users with comprehensive account coverage while effectively stopping fraud and return payments.
Explore bank account verification
The latest insights across digital identity and fraud prevention
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