Securely Onboard New Consumers Without Adding Friction

Stop fraudulent account openings before they happen — verify real identities in real time, without slowing down legitimate applicants.

The Challenge

New account fraud (also called application fraud) happens when a bad actor originates an account using all or part of someone else’s personally identifiable information (PII) — assembled from breached credit card, bank, insurance, utility, healthcare, brokerage, or e-commerce data.

Because so much PII has already been leaked in large-scale data breaches, career criminals can piece together a profile complete enough to pass traditional identity verification checks, including standard KYC, without raising a flag. Left undetected, this fraud doesn’t just cost the initial transaction — a synthetic or stolen identity used to open an account can be nurtured over months to build trust and credit history before a much larger “bust-out” loss.

How Zumigo Solves It

Zumigo authenticates a new applicant’s identity against authoritative, real-time data rather than relying solely on documents or self-reported information a fraudster can fabricate. Specifically, Zumigo:

• Compares the name and address the applicant provided against the name and address the mobile carrier has on file for that phone number
• Returns mobile account information and risk indicators, including account standing, account status and tenure, and recent activity such as deactivation, SIM changes, or number porting
• Generates a risk score indicating whether the phone is trustworthy and protected from account takeover, and whether the associated email genuinely belongs to the applicant
• Verifies additional digital identity variables as needed, including AML/sanctions status, linked bank account validity, and age

How It Works

1. Applicant enters basic information (name, address, phone number) during sign-up.
2. Zumigo passively verifies the phone number and cross-checks name and address against carrier records in real time.
3. Zumigo returns match scores, account risk indicators, and any additional AML, age, or bank checks configured for the workflow.
4. The business approves, declines, or routes the application to step-up review based on the combined trust score — all within the sign-up flow, in milliseconds.

Related Products

• Assure Identity: Core match/no-match verification of PII, phone ownership, and payment identity.
• IDV Builder: Low-code interface to build and launch the onboarding workflow without an engineering project.
• Assure Sentinel: Add sanctions, PEP, and adverse media screening at the point of onboarding.

Why Zumigo

• Catch synthetic and stolen-identity fraud that passes traditional KYC checks
• Verify identity using carrier data a fraudster can’t easily fabricate or buy on the dark web
• Keep the sign-up flow fast and low-friction for legitimate applicants
• Configure once via IDV Builder’s low-code interface — deploy in under an hour instead of weeks

FAQ

What is new account fraud?

New account fraud (or application fraud) occurs when a bad actor uses stolen or synthetic personally identifiable information to open an account in someone else’s name, or in a fabricated identity, in order to extract value from the business or use the account for further fraud.

How is this different from standard KYC document checks?

Traditional KYC often relies on documents and self-reported data, both of which can be forged or reused across a stolen identity kit. Zumigo instead validates the applicant against real-time mobile carrier and account data — including SIM swap, porting, and tenure signals — that are far harder for a fraudster to spoof.

Can Zumigo detect synthetic identities?

Yes. By checking whether the name and address match carrier records and other authoritative sources, whether the phone account has suspicious recent activity, and whether the linked email and bank details are genuine, Zumigo can surface identity combinations that look plausible on paper but don’t hold together in authoritative data.

Does adding identity verification slow down sign-up?

No. Verification runs passively and returns results in real time, so it can be embedded directly in the sign-up flow without adding manual steps for legitimate applicants.