Communications-as-a-service platform Telesign provides digital identity and communication services to help businesses prevent fraud and secure customer interactions. It offers sophisticated digital identity and programmable communications solutions that connect, protect, and defend online experiences. The company’s powerful machine learning and extensive data science deliver identity risk recommendations with a unique combination of speed, accuracy, and global reach.
Telesign works with trusted partners in the telecommunications ecosystem and other data sources to help assess the reliability and risk signals associated with a phone number. One of their key offerings is Telesign Intelligence, a product that evaluates phone number fraud risk throughout the entire customer journey.
“MaxMind has been one of Telesign’s most valued partners for our Intelligence solution.”
Telesign Intelligence uses both static and behavioral phone number data in its risk assessment. The phone number behavioral data is based on internal sources, such as phone number interactions and IP address velocity, while static data is based on attributes such as IP country, or whether an IP is a virtual private network (VPN). Telesign incorporates all of these data points into their model to generate a risk score, reason codes, and a transaction recommendation—whether to allow, flag, or block a transaction. ‘Allow’ is a recommendation to proceed with the transaction, ‘flag’ is to proceed with caution, and ‘block’ is a recommendation not to proceed as the transaction is likely to be fraudulent. These recommendations support customer decision-making and are not used to make automated decisions.
The primary input from customers into Telesign Intelligence is phone number, with IP and email as optional but highly recommended inputs that provide more nuanced information on a transaction. The Telesign team shares that they “see a lot more success” when customers share optional inputs, and adds that MaxMind’s IP Intelligence data is “a really important factor that enriches our fraud protection services”. Whenever a customer wants to increase the block rate or has a lower tolerance for fraud risk, one of the first things the team at Telesign recommends is to share the IP input, which is processed solely for fraud detection purposes in accordance with applicable privacy regulations including GDPR and CCPA.
Though results are based on internal analysis of select customers and may vary depending on customer data and use case, Telesign reports a ~23% relative increase in the percentage of recommended block transactions. This means they are able to identify 23% more high-risk transactions when customers consistently share IP addresses.
“Preventing fraud is our primary goal at Telesign and the biggest benefit that we provide to our customers. When transactions involve an IP address, MaxMind is crucial and we’re able to deliver more value to our customers.”
While the Telesign team knew using MaxMind’s IP intelligence data would increase fraud detection rates, there was one benefit they didn’t anticipate: MaxMind IP data also helps detect significantly more suspected fraud flagged for review. Telesign saw a ~531% increase in transaction review recommendations, an improvement that has generated an equally notable increase of positive customer feedback.
If you’re interested in learning how MaxMind’s industry-leading IP intelligence data can enhance your fraud modeling, connect with one of our experts.
