We recently published a blog that took a deep dive into our reverse-phone lookup service, DOTS GeoPhone Plus. That blog highlighted some of the ins, out and returns of our service, largely focusing on some of the returns in the provider and contact portions of the service.

To supplement that blog, we wanted to highlight the Note Codes and fields that the service can return and provide extra insights and information that can be derived from your data.

Below is an overview of these Note Codes and text descriptions, along with some insights from these pieces of information.

NoteCode	NoteDescription	Meaning
1	IsMailable	Indicates that address in the Contact node can receive mail from the USPS. This can be helpful if you are trying to reach out to a contact through a physical mailing campaign. This address is typically more reliable to reach your contact if it is associated with a landline as opposed to a wireless or VOIP number.
2	IsConnected	Indicates that the number is active and has an active subscriber associated. If you are trying to target leads who are most likely to respond, contacting numbers with this note code are far more likely to have someone on the other end of the number.
3	IsPorted	The number in question has moved from one provider to another. This happens frequently with wireless numbers when subscribers switch carriers, but can also happen in switching a landline to a wireless number. If numbers have switched from a landline to a mobile number it can open up new avenues of communication towards clients like texting or utilizing the SMS or MMS address associated with a wireless number. If this field is present, it will be accompanied with a Date of Porting, which will indicate when the number was first ported.
4	IsWireless	The number in question is a wireless number. As mentioned above, this opens up the avenue for SMS and MMS communications to the contact.
5	IsUnknownContact	This code will let the user know that there was no contact information associated with the number. For these cases the service will still be able to return information in the provider node that the service returns.
6	IsUnknownProvider	This is an older Note Code in the service and we don’t expect it to come up in a normal production scenario. We would generally consider numbers without provider information to be invalid, and as such the service will return an error for these cases.
7	IsTollFreeNumber	This will come up for 800 numbers and other toll free numbers. If you are trying to target numbers where you have a higher chance of speaking to a person or business associated with the number then you might want to exclude these numbers from campaigns.
8	IsGoogleVoiceNumber	Indicates that the given number is a Google Voice number. While there are a lot of legitimate Google Voice numbers, these can often be an avenue that fraudsters use, and many clients use this flag to avoid these numbers.
9	IsSkypeNumber	As with Google Voice numbers, Skype numbers can also be used for fraudulent purposes more often than other phone numbers.
10	IsPossibleDisconnected	This flag means that there is no registered subscriber associated with the phone number. This is generally a good sign that the phone number could be disconnected.
11	IsPortableVOIP	The given phone number is registered to a phone carrier that provides phone number registration without a physical address. Some clients consider these numbers to more likely be associated with fraudulent purposes.
12	IsPossiblePortableVOIP	As with the code above, this code also indicates that the given number may be registered with a carrier that allows for phone number registration without a physical address. Clients also generally consider these to be more likely associated with fraud.

Hopefully, the above notes and explanations for our GeoPhone Plus service will help you identify and target contacts in the most efficient way.

Each use case will be different, so if you have any questions about how to best leverage your reverse-phone lookup integration, please reach out to us! We are happy to help get you up and running with your implementation.

In November 2018, we published the blog, Best Practices for Phone Exchange 2 International, introducing you to one of our phone validation services and its operations. Here in this blog, we drill down and discuss some of the additional information available in our DOTS Phone Exchange 2 API response through the Note Codes fields. These Note Codes provide deeper insight into the phone numbers you are validating.

Our Phone Exchange 2 service has two operations: GetExchangeInfo, which is able to validate US and Canadian phone numbers, and GetInternationalExchangeInfo, which validates phone numbers from any country. These operations share several Note Codes, which you can see listed in our developer guide, and also have ones specific to each operation.

Below is a list of the additional information that the Phone Exchange 2 service’s Note Codes can provide when validating phone numbers.

NoteCode	NoteDescription	Summary
1	IsUnknownProvider	Indicates that we could not definitively identify the service provider for the phone number. This code mostly shows up in the International operation. It is typically associated with incomplete or bad phone numbers, but does not necessarily mean the phone number is invalid.
2	IsInvalidNumber	This is a big red flag that the phone number is bad. This will show up in the International operation since the GetExchangeInfo operation will return an error for invalid phone numbers.
3	IsPorted	The given phone number has been ported and has switched carriers. We generally consider this to be a good indicator that a phone number is valid. The ported date will show when the number switched carriers.
4	IsLandline	This phone number is registered as a landline phone number.
5	IsWireless	This phone number is registered as a wireless phone number. This is helpful to know for the sake of sending SMS messages
6	IsVOIP	This phone number is registered as VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone number.
7	IsUnknownLineType	The service was unable to determine the line type associated with the phone number. This code is most likely to show up in the international phone number operation.
8	IsTollFreeNumber	Indicates the provided number is a Toll-Free Access number, such as a 1-800 or 1-888 number.
9	IsGoogleVoiceNumber	The provided number is a registered Google Voice number. There is increased risk for fraud with Google Voice numbers from operators overseas as they can be easily spoofed and changed.
10	IsSkypeNumber	The provided number is a registered Skype number. There is increased risk for fraud with Skype numbers from operators overseas as they can be easily spoofed and changed.
11	IsPortableVOIP	The provided phone number’s registered phone carrier provides local phone number registration without physical address. There is increased risk of fraud with portable VOIP.
12	IsPossiblePortableVOIP	Indicates the registered phone number is likely assigned to a carrier which provides local phone number registration without physical address. There is increased risk of fraud with portable VOIP numbers.
13	IsPrepayPhone	The given phone number is assigned to a phone carrier offering prepay services. There is increased risk of fraud with phone numbers identified as prepay.
14	IsIncompleteNumber	The given phone number was incomplete. Even though a phone provider match was found for the first 6 digits, the number is incomplete and ultimately an invalid phone number. This will primarily show up in the GetExchangeInfo operation. This can be helpful if your database or CRM has separate fields for some other phone number elements (i.e. area code or extension) and then you can look to those fields to see if you can piece a whole number together.

Here are some examples of use cases applying the results of these Note Codes:

• If these phone numbers correspond to incoming orders, and fraudulent orders are a concern, you might flag calls for further review that have positive results for IsGoogleVoiceNumber, IsSkypeNumber, IsPortableVOIP, IsPossiblePortableVOIP, or IsPrepayPhone.
• If you are cleaning a database of contact numbers for future marketing contact, you might flag numbers with positive results for validity codes such as IsUnknownProvider, IsInvalid, or IsIncompleteNumber.
• For TCPA compliance, you have a 15 day grace period to detect if a number has been ported and remove from your calling list. The Note Codes indicate the line type (e.g. landline, wireless, VOIP, etc) if it has been ported and the ported date, helping you remain in compliance.

Porting allows consumers to use their existing phone number when switching between service providers. Numbers can be ported between landline, wireless, and VOIP. Numbers associated with cancelled services can also be reassigned to new customers.

Each application and use can be different and require a specialized approach and application of our Phone Exchange 2 API. Part of getting a Service Objects’ subscription means having access to amazing support and advice from our data validation experts. We are happy to schedule a consultation to help you get the most out of your Service Objects API. Please reach out to us and let us know if we can help!