EE, the UK’s largest mobile operator has announced its new Digital Identity platform to protect customers from falling victims to fraud.
Through a series of checks, the platform seamlessly verifies a customer’s identity in real time. This helps to prevent identity theft and fraudulent activities. Fraud losses to the telecom industry were estimated to be over $28.3 billion in 2019. False identities are often used to set up accounts, subscription or identity fraud represents 35% of all fraud undergone by the telecoms industry. So it’s the time the telecom industry needs to address frauds like sim swap that are increasing with every passing day.
A common type of criminal activity that EE tackles with the Digital Identity platform is SIM swap fraud which is an account takeover where a customer’s phone number is transferred without the account holder’s knowledge. A fraudster can have unauthorized access to online accounts and can intercept messages or calls to the phone number.
Digital Identity ‘SIM Swap’ checker allows businesses to know when a customer’s SIM was last changed, as a recent change could indicate potential fraud. This information is then used to stop financial transactions until further identity checks are carried out.
