How to Get Started with Vonage Network APIs in 2025

Introduction

The Vonage Network APIs are excellent for identity protection and fraud defense. In this post, we’ll explore common fraud threats and show how the Vonage Network APIs can help mitigate them. You’ll also discover real-world use cases and learn how to get started using these APIs to protect your apps in 2025.

Fraud Threats Put Businesses at Risk

Before we get into the APIs, let’s understand what kinds of fraud are putting users and your business at risk. I’ll give you some examples:

Account Takeover

Unauthorized access to a legitimate user’s account, often involving phishing or hijacking a phone number.

Impersonation

Fraudsters use social engineering to pose as someone else and gain access to their accounts or devices.

Synthetic Identity

Fraudsters create entirely fake identities to open accounts, receive promotions, or carry out long-term fraudulent activity.

What Are Network APIs?

Fraud is a growing problem, but there’s a new generation of APIs to help you fight it.

Vonage Network APIs provide developers with access to key data points that mobile carrier networks hold, extending far beyond traditional SMS or voice services. These APIs standardize access to real-time data from multiple mobile operators worldwide.

With these APIs, developers can integrate advanced fraud detection, verification, and geolocation features directly into their apps.

What Can We Do with Network APIs?

Vonage Network APIs empower your applications to:

• Detect SIM swap irregularities.

• Validate device and phone number status.

• Access network-based location data.

• Analyze population density for Know Your Customer (KYC) or service tailoring.

• Check phone number quality.

• Provide real-time connectivity insights.

Go ahead and check out all the Vonage Network APIs. I’ll give you some examples of the Network APIs in the following sections, and also how they can be used.

Check SIM Swap Irregularities

SIM swap fraud is common for account takeovers. The Vonage SIM Swap API helps prevent these attacks by detecting whether a SIM card associated with a phone number has been changed recently.

By communicating with mobile network operators, this API alerts you to recent SIM changes, allowing you to reach out to your telecom mobile operators to delay or block risky transactions.

Banking Use Case in 5 Steps

Here’s how a typical banking integration might work using the SIM Swap API:

1. The customer initiates a fund transfer via mobile or web.

2. The bank queries the customer’s mobile operator using a CAMARA-based SIM Swap API.

3. The operator checks for a recent SIM swap on the customer's Mobile Station ISDN Number (MSISDN), also known as the phone number. A time threshold (e.g., 24 hours) can be set.

4. The operator returns one of two outcomes:

   • No swap: The bank proceeds with the transaction.

   • Recent swap: The bank performs additional security checks before proceeding.

5. The bank completes the transfer using its usual process, such as sending an OTP SMS.

Authenticate End Users Using a Mobile Data Session

You can authenticate users securely using their mobile data session.

The Vonage Number Verification API allows you to authenticate users silently, with no need for OTPs or user input. It works by validating that a SIM card is associated with the mobile data session of the device in use.

Use the Vonage Network Location APIs

Network-based location verification enables you to:

• Validate that users are in authorized regions (e.g., for gaming or streaming licenses).

• Ensure the signup location matches the customer’s physical location.

• Enhance fraud detection with lower user friction.

• Get location signals that can’t be spoofed like GPS.

Let’s have a look at some use cases:

Bank Use Case

A bank detects a card transaction in a suspicious location. The Vonage Location APIs check the device’s real-time network location and compare it with recent activity. If they don’t align, the bank can flag or block the transaction.

Digital Content Use Case

A streaming provider queries the user's network location to determine if access to region-locked content is granted. The Vonage Location APIs result is matched against the user's IP location to confirm accuracy.

Environments

Vonage offers various Network APIs across different countries and environments. You can check the ones that are currently available in production. The Production environment returns live data from the supported operators in certain countries. However, you can also use the Virtual Operator in the Playground environment while you wait for the Network Registry process to complete.

Conclusion

Now that you know what Network APIs are, why don’t you try them out? Get started by creating a Vonage developer account and check it out using the Network Registry Playground.