How to Retrieve a Phone Number's SMS Pumping Score in Rust

Summary

SMS Pumping Fraud exploits phone number input fields to generate revenue from SMS messages sent to numbers controlled by a specific mobile network operator. Twilio’s Lookup v2 API provides an SMS Pumping Risk Score from 0 to 100, based on a proprietary model using network data including Verify Fraud Guard signals and unusual traffic patterns. This Rust tutorial uses the rustlio crate, dotenvy, serde, and tokio to call the API and retrieve the score along with carrier risk category and block status. Canadian numbers do not return carrier information, and Twilio advises against using the score for US or Canadian numbers. Guidelines recommend sending messages for scores 0-60, adding friction for 60-75, treating as suspicious for 75-90, and blocking for 90-100.

Takeaways

1. 1

   The SMS Pumping Risk Score ranges from 0 (no risk) to 100 (high risk) and is based on Twilio’s proprietary model using network data, including signals from Verify Fraud Guard, risky carriers, unusual traffic patterns, and low conversion rates.

2. 2

   Twilio provides guidelines for acting on the score: send messages for scores 0-60, add friction for 60-75, treat as suspicious for 75-90, and block for 90-100.

3. 3

   Twilio does not recommend using the SMS Pumping Risk Score for US or Canadian phone numbers, as these regions are generally not targeted by SMS pumping fraud.

FAQ