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Verify Now - Identity Verification Platform
Reverse-Lookup a SA Mobile — for Fraud Prevention
Resolve a South African mobile number to the recorded subscriber's ID, surname and first name 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 Phone Trace returns
Submit a South African mobile number and receive a structured response with the fields below.
ID_NumberSurnameFirst_NameNumber_1Number_2transaction_idmeta.environmentmeta.timestampAPI Response Example
{
"success": true,
"Status": "Success",
"result": {
"ID_Number": "8506125012087",
"Surname": "Van der Merwe",
"First_Name": "Jacobus",
"Number_1": "+27821234567",
"Number_2": "+27119876543"
},
"transaction_id": "tx_01JABCPHN8...",
"meta": {
"environment": "production",
"timestamp": "2025-04-17T09:18:41Z"
}
}Fraud-prevention use cases
Every scenario below is a permitted fraud detection / fraud prevention application.
Onboarding KYC
Resolve a mobile number given at sign-up to the recorded subscriber so you can flag impersonation before account creation.
Payment Fraud Response
Investigate a suspicious transaction by confirming that the contact number on file matches the recorded subscriber.
Suspected Impersonation
When a customer disputes a call or SMS, reverse-lookup the number to verify whether it corresponds to a recorded subscriber.
Supplier / Courier Verification
Before releasing a payment, delivery or credential to a contact number, confirm the recorded subscriber matches expectation.
Account Takeover Investigation
During incident response, resolve the mobile number that was added to the profile to the ID and name on record.
Returned-Contact Recovery
Re-establish contact with a customer whose previous number is unreachable by verifying an alternate number before outreach.
Real-time results
Sub-second reverse-lookup via dashboard or REST API.
Confirmed subscriber
ID_Number, Surname, First_Name plus an alternate recorded number.
Audit-logged
Every lookup is logged with a fraud-prevention attestation record.
API or dashboard
Integrate into onboarding, fraud-ops or incident-response playbooks.
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?
Phone Number 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 this 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. Examples include validating a caller who claims to be a customer, resolving a mobile number associated with a suspicious transaction, verifying supplier or courier contacts before payment, and investigating impersonation or account-takeover incidents. Any other use is prohibited by our terms.
What data is returned in a Phone Number Trace response?
A successful response includes the subscriber's ID_Number, Surname, First_Name, Number_1 and Number_2 (alternate recorded number where available). Every response also includes a transaction_id and a meta block containing the environment and timestamp.
How quickly do I get results?
Responses typically return in under five seconds, whether your team is operating in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria or elsewhere in South Africa. Available via the VerifyNow dashboard or the REST API.
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.
Does it work for landlines or only mobile?
Phone Number Trace is optimised for South African mobile numbers (MTN, Vodacom, Cell C, Telkom Mobile, Rain). Landline coverage is more limited because registration records are thinner; we recommend Consumer Trace for ID-led lookups that include multiple recorded numbers.