The UK’s largest mobile operator EE has announced its Digital Identity platform

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.