More non-Europeans than Europeans have a positive view of businesses using their mobile phone numbers to verify their identities. Over half of non-European respondents to MEF’s 11th Annual Consumer Survey, or 51%, said they viewed mobile number intelligence as a positive development, compared to 42% of Europeans.

This is likely because consumers in non-European countries are more likely to be the target of fraud and are therefore more willing participants in authentication processes such as mobile number intelligence, which helps prevent them from being exploited.

Mobile number intelligence typically happens in the background during customer onboarding to check whether the customer’s phone number is connected, valid, and active on a telco network. Meanwhile, a higher proportion of Europeans than non-Europeans feel negatively about mobile number intelligence (14%, compared to 10% of non-Europeans), or don’t know about it (14% vs. 9%), again suggesting that fewer Europeans than non-Europeans have been impacted by fraudulent practices, and are therefore more dubious about the benefits of mobile number intelligence.

The full report, and all survey data from over 11,000 respondents across 17 countries, is now available to download from MEF Data