# Phone Validation for Insurance Quote Forms: Reducing Fraud and Improving Contact Rates > How real-time phone validation helps insurance carriers reduce quote fraud, improve contact rates, and maintain TCPA compliance on quote forms. Published 2026-05-20, updated 2026-10-03 by Marcus Whelan. Canonical: https://checkthatphone.com/blog/phone-validation-for-insurance-quote-forms-reducing-fraud-and-improving-contact-rates ## Why phone validation matters for insurance quote forms A phone number on an insurance quote form is doing more work than it looks like. It's your follow-up channel, your first read on whether the prospect is real, and, if you mishandle it, a TCPA liability waiting to happen. I treat every number that comes through a quote form as three questions at once: can I reach this person, are they who they say they are, and am I allowed to call them. Real-time validation answers all three at submission. It filters out fraud and junk before it touches your CRM, tells you which channel will actually reach the prospect, and keeps you on the right side of telecommunications rules. ## Common problems with unvalidated phone data Quote forms pull in real prospects and a steady stream of garbage. Without validation, the garbage shows up as a few recurring patterns. Fraudulent submissions come in on disconnected numbers, VoIP lines tied to synthetic identities, and numbers that cycle through lead generation networks. They eat agent time and quietly distort your conversion metrics. Wrong contact methods are everywhere: a prospect leaves a landline but expects a text, or an agent fires SMS at a number that can't receive it. Either way the follow-up stalls and conversions drop. Compliance risk shows up when you dial a number on a litigator list or contact someone who opted out. TCPA statutory damages are $500 per violation, up to $1,500 if willful or knowing ([47 U.S.C. ยง 227(b)(3)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/227)). Deactivated numbers slip in too, whether from a browser autofill pulling stale data or a prospect deliberately handing over an old number to dodge the follow-up call. ## Validating at quote submission Validate during submission, before the lead ever enters your system. A single synchronous call to CheckThatPhone comes back with everything you need on the number. Here's a basic request: ```bash curl -X POST https://api.checkthatphone.com/v1/lookup \ -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "phone": "2125550147", "litigatorFilter": true, "landlineSmsLookup": true }' ``` The fields that matter most for quote validation (every flag comes back as the string `"true"` or `"false"`): - `action` and `deliverable` give the overall SMS recommendation; `reason` explains an `"unsubscribe"` - `deactivationDate` shows a carrier deactivation within the last 45 days, if there was one - `dipCarrier`, `dipCarrierType`, and `dipCarrierSubType` identify the current carrier and line type from a live carrier dip at lookup time - `nanpType` classifies the line from numbering-plan data as `mobile`, `landline`, or `not-mobile` - `litigator`, `litigator_type`, and `litigator_name` flag known TCPA litigators when `litigatorFilter: true` is set ## Line type detection for follow-up strategy Insurance sales runs across voice and SMS, usually over several touches. The `dipCarrierType` field tells you mobile versus landline, but that's only half the story. Some landlines can take SMS through a messaging provider: about 7% of landlines we check are SMS-capable. Add `landlineSmsLookup: true` to the request and, for landlines, you get: - `dipMessagingLookup` confirming the lookup was performed - `dipMessagingEnabled` indicating whether the landline can receive SMS - `dipMessagingProvider` identifying the messaging provider, when there's a match That's enough to route every lead correctly. A landline with no SMS capability is voice-only. A mobile or an SMS-enabled landline can take quote confirmations, policy document links, and appointment reminders by text, as long as you have the consent automated texts require ([what TCPA written consent still requires](/blog/prior-express-written-consent-under-the-tcpa-what-survives-the-2024-fcc-changes)). ## Identifying high-risk submissions A few number characteristics line up with fraudulent submissions often enough to be worth flagging. VoIP lines, which you can spot through `dipCarrierSubType` (`IPES`), are cheap to get in bulk, which makes them common in synthetic identities and lead fraud. Plenty of real prospects use VoIP, so don't auto-reject. Add a verification step before you hand them to an agent. Ported numbers (`dipPorted: "true"`) aren't suspicious on their own. Porting is normal, and the flag doesn't say when the port happened. But a ported number sitting next to other red flags, like mismatched geographic data, is worth a closer look. Geographic inconsistencies turn up when `geoState` doesn't match the address on the quote form. People move and keep their numbers, so a small mismatch is nothing. A big one earns a second look. ## TCPA compliance through litigator scrubbing Insurance quote forms attract professional plaintiffs too: a submitted form leads to calls, and calls without solid consent lead to claims. The `litigatorFilter` add-on checks numbers against our TCPA litigator database, which is refreshed daily. Set `litigatorFilter: true` and the response includes: - `litigator` (`"true"` or `"false"`) indicating whether the number matched - `litigator_type` classifying the match as `"litigator"`, `"plaintiff"`, or `"agitator"` - `litigator_name`, the name on record, when there is one A litigator match should either be rejected outright or sent to manual review with explicit written-consent requirements before anyone makes contact. The cost of running the check is nothing next to a TCPA settlement. For more on implementing litigator screening, see our [TCPA Litigator Scrub use case](/use-cases/tcpa-litigator-scrub). If you buy quote leads from affiliates, [the affiliate marketer's TCPA exposure](/blog/the-affiliate-marketer-s-tcpa-exposure-and-the-five-validation-fields-that-reduce-it) and [validation in a ping-post flow](/blog/phone-validation-in-a-ping-post-lead-gen-flow-where-to-call-the-api-on-each-side) cover the lead-gen side, and the [affiliate and lead-gen use case](/use-cases/affiliate-leadgen-validation) shows the integration. ## Deliverability checks and data hygiene The `deliverable` flag and its companions (`blackList`, `reason`, `action`) tell you whether the number can take an SMS and whether anything else blocks it. The common cases: - Numbers the carrier deactivated in the last 45 days return `deliverable: "false"` with a `deactivationDate` - Numbers on our internal blacklist, or matched by the litigator filter, are flagged through `blackList: "true"` - The `reason` field gives human-readable context - The `action` field is `"send"`, `"unsubscribe"`, or `"error"` (a malformed request) `deliverable` is about SMS, so a landline comes back `"false"` even if it's perfectly callable. For a voice follow-up, read `reason`: reject invalid and recently deactivated numbers at submission, and they never get into your CRM to inflate your acquisition costs. If a prospect can't give you a working number, the quote isn't actionable anyway. ## Implementation considerations Validation adds latency to form submission. There are three common ways to absorb it. Synchronous validation calls the API during submission and blocks until results come back. You get immediate feedback, but you have to handle timeouts gracefully. Asynchronous validation accepts the submission, then validates in the background before routing to agents. Better for the user, slower on fraud detection. Conditional validation runs the full check only when other risk signals are present (mismatched IP geolocation, a brand-new email domain) and a lighter check on everything else. Pricing and rate limits for your use case are on the [pricing page](/pricing), and the full API reference lives in the [docs](/docs). ## Measuring impact Track these before and after you turn validation on: - Contact rate: share of leads where agents reach the prospect - Cost per contacted lead: total acquisition and agent cost divided by successful contacts - Fraud rate: share of quotes found fraudulent after payout - Compliance incidents: TCPA complaints or violations per thousand contacts How much these move depends on how dirty your inbound leads were, so capture the baseline first. The compliance upside is harder to put a number on, and it may be worth more than the operational gains combined. Start by turning on litigator scrubbing for every submission, since that's the line item with the highest downside if you skip it, then layer in deliverability and line-type routing. For broader applications of phone validation in customer onboarding, see our guide on [KYC phone verification](/use-cases/kyc-phone-verification). --- CheckThatPhone is a phone validation API for US and Canada numbers: https://checkthatphone.com (docs: https://checkthatphone.com/docs.md, pricing: https://checkthatphone.com/pricing.md).