As global phone number fraud continues at an alarming rate – stealing billions from consumers and leaving many wary of even answering their phones – netnumber is continually working with enterprises, carriers and the broader telecom community to find creative solutions to combat this ongoing problem. As a result, netnumber recently launched the first-of-its-kind Fraud Prevention Registry (FPR), a global platform for reporting and identifying communications fraud.
A Collaborative Industry Tool for Sharing Fraud Data
When it comes to fraud, timing is everything. Fraudsters move fast, and data that’s already minutes old, not to mention a day old or even older, can be extremely difficult to shut down due to its high-speed, variable path.
But what if the industry could share fraud data in real-time?
netnumber responded to this challenge with the Fraud Prevention Registry (FPR), a safe and secure centralized fraud number database that facilitates the real-time exchange of fraud data among industry stakeholders, including communication service providers (CSPs), telecom carriers and enterprises. Once a fraud attack is identified by one of the FPR participating members, all other members can react quickly and prevent the attack from spreading further.
The result? A better, unified approach to fighting illegal robocalling, account takeovers and other voice and messaging fraud, enabling members to reduce costs, avoid reputational damage and enhance consumer trust.
“The idea is to make intelligence sharing simple, secure, and scalable—so everyone in the ecosystem can detect fraud earlier, respond faster and reduce risk,” said Dr. Marco Lafrentz, netnumber’s VP of Business and Market Development, during a talk at The Telecom Threat Intelligence Summit 2025.
Launched in North America and expanding globally, the registry places particular emphasis on the finance sector, since it is one of the most heavily targeted for communications fraud. However, it also has broad implications across industries and is updated continually to ensure data integrity.
“It’s a consortium-based platform that enables trusted contributors to share fraud intelligence about phone numbers in real time, with context, and in a secure, privacy-respecting way,” added Lafrentz.
How the FPR Leverages Millions of Phone Numbers From Active Attacks
The registry tracks millions of phone numbers linked to phishing and fraudulent activities, as continuously reported by financial institutions and other sources. Additionally, the FPR contains millions of phone numbers associated with phishing scams and data breaches fed by netnumber partners, including WMC Global, a cyber threat intelligence firm.
One of the most powerful aspects of the FPR is its immediacy. Near-instantaneous data distribution is a key attribute of the FPR, as high-volume real-time data is critical for fraud data sharing because fraud is typically very volatile. For example, fraudsters rotate through phone numbers in a matter of minutes to avoid detection.
netnumber’s telecom-grade platform, deep domain knowledge in phone number intelligence, robust APIs and deep integration in the messaging and voice ecosystems support reliable, secure real-time data distribution globally and can scale up to even the most demanding carrier requirements of tens of thousands of transactions per second.
FPR’s Easy Integration, Time Sensitivity & Smart Logic
For those interested in joining the FPR, setting up subscription access is simple. Carriers, anti-fraud solution vendors, financial institutions, and other organizations can access the FPR via a simple API, dedicated query service, Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) or through plug-and-play integration with existing netnumber interfaces.
In developing the FPR, netnumber also addressed the issue of time sensitivity and number integrity by incorporating a timestamp of the fraud report and smart logic technology to ensure phone numbers are removed from the FPR when an owner change is identified.
The FPR’s three-step process ensures that the data is always fresh and relevant:
- Timestamp
- The FPR returns the timestamp showing when the phone number was reported to the FPR. Customers can use the timestamps to determine the appropriate action based on their time sensitivity.
- Multiple Reports
- The timestamp associated with a phone number resets to the most recent one with each new reporting of a fraudulent phone number.
- Smart Logic
- The FPR uses smart logic to further ensure accuracy by removing phone numbers from the FPR when a set of signals determines they are no longer relevant for fraud.
“We’ve created a secure registry that enables participants to share information about fraudulent phone number activities in real time,” said Steve Legge, CEO of netnumber. “Industry leaders have long recognized the importance of sharing fraud data, but didn’t have a safe, reliable, and real-time mechanism to do it. We believe the FPR will enable better fraud detection and prevention efforts and prove to be a very effective means of combating this ongoing problem.”
To learn more about the FPR, click here.