How to know if a phone number is fake

Validating phone numbers for registrations, payments, marketing lists, and overall user verification (such as AML/KYC) is an industry best practice to ensure your user data is accurate and up to date. Phone number verification also has an added benefit of limiting abusive behavior such as fake duplicate accounts and abuse from credit card chargebacks.

Verifying phone numbers can be performed with the IPQS phone number validation API which includes example code to make integration a breeze. Bulk marketing lists can also be uploaded through the user dashboard in CSV format. Affordable pricing and enhanced lookup details provide better data and reputation insight than similar services.

Detect disconnected phone numbers and check if a phone number is active, all with one simple API lookup. Improve user data and lead quality with accurate phone number lookups that check carrier and prepaid status. Identify if the phone number line type is a landline, mobile/cellular, or VOIP.

Learn about IPQS Phone Validation

Upon searching with the phone number validator tool above, IPQS will automatically lookup the number against the country's number routing rules. A quick syntax check is performed to ensure the phone number is properly formatted and then matched against active line types. Once a match is found, the carrier details are retrieved and further analysis can be performed. Using data directly from the carrier (with direct carrier relations in over 75 countries), subscriber information and line status can be identified. At this point, it's possible to determine if the phone number is real, based on an active line connection or disconnected phone number status. Additional phone number reputation checks are performed to analyze abusive history or activity as a temporary and disposable phone number. Quickly analyze users and score leads with an overall phone risk score calculated for every number.

Using these services in real time to verify phone numbers is a great way to analyze user quality or perform lead scoring. This can be taken a step further for additional reputation checks with email address validation and proxy and VPN detection, for complete user verification.

Using either the phone verification API or bulk list processing will return the number's associated country, associated country dialing code, carrier name, line type, prepaid status, risk scoring, and overall validity as true or false. This makes it easy to identify invalid or disconnected phone numbers that likely represent a fraudulent user with an inactive phone number. This data is available across all regions, so all countries are fully supported with great coverage rates. Geographic data can also be supplied such as city, state, region, and country. Additionally, retrieve do not call (DNC) opt-in status and enable TCPA scrubbing for your phone number lists.

Line type detection and carrier lookup details with phone number verification can provide insight into the true quality of the user. Some carriers, especially among ported numbers or prepaid plans, can represent higher risk. VOIP numbers are inherently riskier than wireless/cellular and landline numbers. Millions of individual phone numbers are also blacklisted by IPQS due to excessive abuse, spam calls, and suspicious behavior patterns. Reverse number lookups can also expand these checks by providing the owner's name and details with a reverse identity check.

For most advanced telecom and voice users that want to verify phone numbers, we recommend our HLR lookup service & LRN data that can provide direct carrier details for number routing. Roaming status, carrier lookups, and line type checks, even for ported numbers, are fully available for most countries. Carrier lookups can provide important information for call routing, marketing compliance against litigators, lead scoring, and risk analysis. This data can help verify a phone number is active and calculate an accurate phone number risk score based on recent reputation. More advanced carrier data is available on request, so please contact our support team to learn more.

Active phone numbers can play an important role in identity verification. To check if a phone number is real or active in service, use the phone number lookup tool above. The phone number validator will use real-time carrier data with support for over 150 countries, to ping the carrier and check if the subscriber is active to detect disconnected numbers and subscribers which have been suspended or cancelled their service. If the "active" phone number field displays "true", then the number is real, reachable, and currently in-service.

Active statuses can frequently change due to number porting. VOIP phone numbers carry a greater risk for disconnections or being directed to a voicemail greeting. Lookup further details including "active" status using the phone number validation API.

How do I know if a number is spam?

If you see "Suspected spam caller" or "Spam" as the caller ID, the call might be spam. You can answer the call, or block and report the number. If a call from someone you know is marked as spam, you can report the mistake. Future calls to your phone from this number won't be marked as spam.

How can I check a phone number?

For every Android phone, regardless of manufacturer, you'll be able to find your phone number if you go to Settings > About Phone or About Device > Status > My phone number.

How can I trace a fake WhatsApp number?

Call the phone number from a private line. If you're still stumped on whether the phone number on someone's WhatsApp profile is legitimate, you can call the phone number (from your phone, not using WhatsApp voice chat) to see who answers.

Can a fake number be traced back to you?

In other cases, tracing a spoofed phone number can be done through your telephone company. Sometimes telephone companies can trace spoof calls back to their origin. This, however, can be a timely process and does not always provide correct results.