How to Confirm Phone Number Ownership with Lookup Identity Match in Python

Summary

The tutorial shows how to use Twilio Lookup Identity Match in Python to confirm that signup information is associated with a phone number and reduce signup fraud. It builds a Flask application that accepts an E.164-formatted number, first name, and last name, then calls the Lookup API with fields="identity_match" and the supplied identity attributes. The response exposes statuses including exact_match, high_partial_match, no_match, and no_data_available; the example accepts a result only when the number is valid and both names are exact or high partial matches. The implementation covers project setup with Flask, twilio, and python-dotenv, environment-based credentials, an intl-tel-input form, and frontend handling for success and failure messages. It also notes that Identity Match can use combinations of name, address, national ID, or date of birth, and points to other Lookup packages such as Line Type Intelligence and SIM swap detection.

Takeaways

1. 1

   Identity Match performs a zero-knowledge match between a phone number and authoritative data sources such as mobile carrier records.

2. 2

   The example considers verification successful only when the Lookup result is valid and both first_name_match and last_name_match are exact_match or high_partial_match.

3. 3

   Identity Match accepts combinations of name, address, national ID, and date of birth; the response can also report no_match, no_data_available, or null when an input was not supplied.