1 / The telephone number, a number sometimes threatened by fraud?

In today’s digital ecosystem, the mobile phone number is widely used for purposes that go far beyond its original functions of addressing and naming.

Currently mobile phone numbers are used to contact and inform you (somewhat a normal use), but surprisingly, they are  also used to identify you, authenticate you, alert you, access  bank accounts, or validate online payments.

Phone numbers have literally become a new pivotal identity attribute, giving it a very strong value.

Being at the core of our digital lives, unfortunately, the mobile phone number is also exposed to many fraud schemes. A figure of roughly over 1% of daily digital transactions are attempted frauds, many of which are associated with mobile phone numbers. Examples include phishing, smishing, spoofing, or sim swapping, which often have disastrous consequences for the unfortunate victims.

2 / Mobile ID, APIs to secure these numbers?

Telcos such as Orange want their customers to be able to have a deep trust in the digital ecosystem in which they operate on a daily basis, and one way to achieve this is by securing this ecosystem.

Keeping this in mind, operators have worked together to offer a set of APIs, called Mobile ID, which allow digital actors to ensure reliable and secure digital journeys they offer to their own customers.

There are currently 5 APIs that have been designed within the AF2M ( an association which brings together the main French telcos). This multi-operator approach has the advantage of being able to address all French mobile users.

3 / What are the benefits of these APIs?

The first benefit is the deterministic and often unique nature of the data accessible through our APIs. It is estimated that 77% of digital transactions are conducted from a mobile phone. 

As mobile operators, we are at the heart of digital exchanges and have access to a range of information and data that allows us, very early on and often in real-time, to identify anomalies, weak signals, or characteristic patterns of potentially fraudulent or risky behavior.

The second benefit is privacy and legal certainty, with "GDPR by design" APIs that have been developed in collaboration with the Data Protection Officers (DPOs) of various French operators.

Finally, the third benefit is coverage,  these solutions are not only compatible with the 58 million lines of French operators but also benefit from ground breaking work within the GSMA to make these operator APIs a future global standard that will enable access to the 5 billion mobile phone users worldwide.

Find the complete set of Mobile ID APIs at : https://payservices.orange.com/fr/identite-numerique/mobile-id