French Mobile Operators Join Forces to Tackle Rising Fraud

France’s four leading mobile network operators (MNOs) have joined forces to fight against online fraud and identity theft.

Bouygues Telecom, Free, Orange and SFR announced on December 3 that they will launch two network Application Programmable Interfaces (APIs) for the French market in the first half of 2025 to help online businesses combat fraud and digital identity theft.

This move comes as part of the Global System for Mobile Communications Association’s (GSMA) Open Gateway initiative.

GSMA Open Gateway Initiative, An Anti-Fraud Project

The GSMA is a trade association founded in 1995 and represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide. As of 2024, it has over 750 members.

The Association’s Open Gateway Initiative was launched in 2023 to facilitate the design of digital products that operate seamlessly on all devices, regardless of the country or operator. Since its launch, 67 MNOs, representing 278 networks and three-quarters of mobile connections, have joined the initiative alongside 26 channel partners.

Developers can also utilize the new network capabilities mobile networks offered by using APIs to plug their services into these network capabilities. The service APIs are available through the CAMARA repository, an open-source project by the Linux Foundation.

Henry Calvert, Head of Networks at the GSMA, commented: “This aligned market launch of CAMARA APIs from France’s leading operators will make it easier to keep people safe from the growing threat of fraud. The initiative benefits businesses, mobile operators, and their customers, saving developers time, money and effort while allowing for the quick launch of innovative new services.”

Rui Frazao, CTO of Free owner Group Iliad, added that the move will also open opportunities for economic growth. “This unified ecosystem will help unlock the full potential of 5G networks, which aligns with Group Iliad’s strategy to democratize access to the latest technologies as soon as they are available. The combination of advanced 5G and APIs opens the mobile networks for new use cases across many industries: fintech, mobility, gaming, entertainment, and others,” he explained.

How APIs Can Help Reduce Online Fraud

The two APIs the four French MNOs are making available to enterprise developers are called KYC Match and SIM Swap.

KYC Match will allow businesses to cross-check customer-provided information with the verified records maintained by the user’s mobile network operator as part of their know-your-customer (KYC) process.

While this information could include details such as mobile phone number, name, postal code, address, birthdate and email address, the GSMA confirmed that no personally identifiable information (PII) will be shared in the process.

France is the first country in the world to have all its nationwide MNOs release KYC Match. Some of the country’s financial institutions, such as Crédit Agricole’s online subsidiary BforBank and Credit Mutuel Arkéa’s Fortuneo, already use this API to screen new customers in partnership with DQE Software.

SIM Swap will enable a checking process to verify whether a given phone number has recently changed SIM cards.

“This helps mitigate account takeover attacks, in which fraudsters take control of the account owner’s SIM card using social engineering techniques and stolen personal data,” the GSMA explained. “For example, at the time of a financial transaction, a financial institution can check whether the relationship between the customer’s phone number and SIM Card has been recently changed, helping them decide whether to approve the transaction or not.”

Both APIs have been developed using the GSMA Open Gateway’s CAMARA standard and have undergone a rigorous testing process before commercialization.

The French MNOs plan to make a third API, Number Verification, available in the future. This API can be used to verify a customer’s mobile number with strong authentication processes that will replace SMS-based multifactor authentication (MFA) options.