Onboard a customer you only know by Phone Number

You have a phone number and little else. This guide shows how to create an entity from minimal data, which identifier options you can use depending on the market, and what the platform does automatically the moment the entity exists.

1

Complete authentication and connection check

Before creating any entity, authenticate your API session and confirm connectivity. Every request carries your API secret token in the header; a failed auth check here is the most common cause of downstream 401 errors that look like data problems but aren't.

2

Add the entity

You have three ways to create the entity, depending on what identifier you hold. These are alternatives, choose the one that matches the data you have.

• Add with PII (first name, last name, country, phone). Use when you hold basic personal information but no government identifier yet. The entity is created on this data alone and enriched later.

POST {{baseUrl}}/v2/api/entities
{
  "entityType": "individual",
  "firstName": "Jane",
  "lastName": "Doe",
  "nationality": "NG",
  "phone": "[phone]",
  "isSubjectConsent": true
}

• Add with a Nigerian eIDv identifier (Phone Number / NIN-by-phone). Use when you hold a Nigeria-specific electronic identity value. The platform resolves the underlying identity record, so the entity starts more complete.

POST {{baseUrl}}/v2/api/entities/:entityId/identity
{
  "entityType": "individual",
  "isSubjectConsent": true,
  "identity": {
    "countryCode": "NG",
    "idType": "nin_phone",
    "mobile": "[phone]"
  }
}

• Add with a South African eIDv identifier (SAID number). Use when onboarding in South Africa with a national ID number. The SAID resolves the identity against the South African source.

POST {{baseUrl}}/v2/api/entities/:entityId/identity
{
  "entityType": "individual",
  "isSubjectConsent": true,
  "identity": {
    "countryCode": "ZA",
    "idType": "zaSAID",
    "id": "8001015009087"
  }
}

References: Create Entity, Verify Entity (KYC)

3

What happens in the background?

The moment the entity is created, the platform automatically runs a full AML screen — Sanctions, PEP, Watchlist, and Adverse Media — against it. This always runs, on every plan, and produces the entity's initial risk score.

At this stage the score reflects AML data only. A newly created entity has no session or behavioral history yet, so Fraud Insight which scores device and behavioral signals has nothing to evaluate. As the customer transacts and generates signals, Fraud Insight enriches the profile into a fuller risk score on the same entity record. This enrichment happens over the customer's lifecycle, not at creation.