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Verify Now - Identity Verification Platform
Locate People by SA ID Number — for Fraud Prevention
Resolve a South African ID to current address, contact numbers and employer records in seconds. Provided exclusively for fraud detection and fraud prevention under NCA Regulation 18(4)(b) and POPIA Section 11(1)(f).
Legal basis
VerifyNow provides this service exclusively for fraud detection and fraud prevention purposes — a prescribed purpose under Regulation 18(4)(b) of the National Credit Act (2005) and a recognised legitimate interest of the responsible party under Section 11(1)(f) of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). By using this service you confirm your legal basis for processing is fraud prevention. Any other use is prohibited by our terms. Data subjects retain the right to object to processing under Section 11(3) of POPIA, and such objections must be honoured.
What a Consumer Trace returns
Submit a South African ID number and receive a structured response with the fields below. Array fields contain zero or more records depending on what the official data sources hold.
id_numberfull_nameinitialstitlegenderdate_of_birthmarital_statusdeceasedconsumer_idtypeaddress_line_1postal_codetypenumbernameoccupationtransaction_idmeta.environmentmeta.timestampAPI Response Example
{
"success": true,
"Status": "Success",
"result": {
"id_number": "9710225015088",
"full_name": "Thandiwe Naledi Mokoena",
"initials": "TN",
"title": "Ms",
"gender": "Female",
"date_of_birth": "1997-10-22",
"marital_status": "Single",
"deceased": "No",
"consumer_id": "CN-4123987",
"addresses": [
{
"type": "Residential",
"address_line_1": "14 Jan Smuts Ave, Rosebank, Johannesburg",
"postal_code": "2196"
}
],
"contact_numbers": [
{ "type": "Cellular", "number": "+27721234567" }
],
"employers": [
{ "name": "Sandton Fintech (Pty) Ltd", "occupation": "Analyst" }
]
},
"transaction_id": "tx_01JABC9D7H...",
"meta": {
"environment": "production",
"timestamp": "2025-04-17T09:14:22Z"
}
}Fraud-prevention use cases
Every scenario below is a permitted fraud detection / fraud prevention application.
Onboarding KYC
Confirm an applicant exists, is not deceased and can be located before extending credit, a service or a wallet.
Payment Fraud Response
Investigate suspicious transactions by resolving an SA ID to current address, contact numbers and employer.
Employment Screening (fraud exposure)
Corroborate declared employer and address information during hiring to prevent payroll and insider fraud.
Returned-Mail Address Update
Locate a customer whose last known address no longer reaches them so you can re-verify them for ongoing service.
Insurance-Claim Investigation
Verify claimant identity and residence during suspected-fraud claim reviews under your fraud-prevention programme.
Identity-Theft Response
Quickly cross-reference identity fields when a customer reports impersonation or account-takeover fraud.
Real-time results
Sub-second responses via dashboard or REST API.
Structured fields
Normalised JSON — identity, addresses, contacts and employers.
Audit-logged
Every lookup is logged with a fraud-prevention attestation record.
API or dashboard
Integrate into your onboarding, fraud-ops or investigation workflow.
Our data sources
Official government registries and licensed South African data sources. We cite the statutory authority for processing (NCA Regulation 18(4)(b) and POPIA Section 11(1)(f)) directly; we do not disclose individual providers in public copy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is my legal basis for using this service?
Consumer Trace is provided exclusively for fraud detection and fraud prevention — a prescribed purpose under Regulation 18(4)(b) of the National Credit Act (2005) and a recognised legitimate interest of the responsible party under Section 11(1)(f) of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). By using the service you confirm your legal basis for processing is fraud prevention.
What purposes am I permitted to use this for?
Fraud detection and fraud prevention only. Typical use cases include onboarding KYC, payment-fraud verification, returned-mail address updates, employment screening for fraud exposure, insurance-claim fraud investigation, and identity-theft response. Any other use is prohibited by our terms.
What data is returned in a Consumer Trace response?
Identity fields (ID number, full name, initials, title, gender, date of birth, marital status, deceased status, consumer ID), recorded addresses (type, address line, postal code), recorded contact numbers (type, number) and recorded employers (name, occupation). Every response includes a transaction ID and metadata block (environment, timestamp). Data is sourced from official government registries and licensed South African data sources.
How quickly do I get results?
Results are returned in seconds via the dashboard or REST API. Whether you are running a check in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria or anywhere else in South Africa, response time is typically under five seconds.
What if the data subject objects to the processing?
Data subjects retain the right to object on reasonable grounds under Section 11(3) of POPIA. If you receive such an objection you must stop processing and inform VerifyNow so the lookup record can be flagged. Section 18 of POPIA also governs notifications to data subjects about purpose and legal basis where feasible.
Where does the data come from?
Official government registries and licensed South African data sources. We do not disclose individual providers in public copy; we cite the statutory authority (NCA Regulation 18(4)(b) and POPIA Section 11(1)(f)) that permits the processing.
Is Consumer Trace available across South Africa?
Yes. Records cover individuals across all provinces, including Gauteng (Johannesburg, Pretoria), the Western Cape (Cape Town), KwaZulu-Natal (Durban), the Eastern Cape, Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and the Northern Cape.