World-first telco consortium combats fraud through shared intelligence

Swisscom and Sunrise, Switzerland’s two largest telecom providers, „have established a groundbreaking fraud risk consortium enabling them to exchange real-time intelligence on fraudulent events to protect customers and safeguard their digital ecosystem” – according to the press release.

The LexisNexis® Risk Intelligence Consortium is a growing collective of privacy-by-design risk intelligence-sharing frameworks hosted and supported by LexisNexis Risk Solutions that have been quietly powering banking, gaming and other sectors globally for years.

These consortiums enable members to share digital risk signals with other participating organizations to assist in detecting and preventing fraud and financial crime or assessing credit application risk. „In the case of Swisscom and Sunrise, when a fraudster is blocked by one telco provider, they will tend to pivot their attack to another. The consortium facilitates real-time feedback on known risk signals, giving members an early warning system to prevent fraud.” – the company explained.

The Communications, Mobile and Media sector’s central role in global digital onboarding and authentication processes makes it the focus of a high volume of attempted fraud activity at early interaction points, with more than 1 in 20 (5.2%) digital interactions being a confirmed fraud attack in 2025¹. This is higher than the ecommerce sector (4.6%) and five times higher than the financial services sector. Analysis shows attacks are focussed on new account creations with around 1 in 8 being an attack, as well as payments, which saw an 84% year on year increase. The figures also highlight the telco industry’s importance in enabling early identification and interception of fraudulent activity before it reaches other sectors.

In its first three months, the Swiss telco consortium identified over four thousand high-risk data attributes, resulting in a 150% uplift in fraud detection and achieving an almost 100% confidence rating in their consortium-enabled fraud alerts, according to the two providers.

„Working within the consortium has allowed us to shift towards a more proactive fraud strategy,” explains Michael Hohermuth, fraud manager at Swisscom. „The ability to act on high-risk signals before a fraud attempt hits, enhances our approach to threat management. The real-time feedback loop with Sunrise means that if either member spots a threat, the other can act when that same threat actor comes knocking at our door.”

Anna Hayford, fraud manager at Sunrise, adds, „The consortium enables a level of agility that we could not achieve in isolation. Sharing intelligence in near real time means we can see threats as they emerge, rather than once the damage is done. We’ve seen clear improvements in our detection capabilities, especially with high-risk devices and synthetic identities.”

Jason Lane-Sellers, director, fraud and identity at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, says, “With international regulatory frameworks demanding stronger fraud prevention across digital channels, the Swiss telco consortium ensures that scam mitigation now begins within the country’s core telecommunications infrastructure itself. At LexisNexis Risk Solutions we’re committed to expanding this authoritative collaborative model globally, across sector and industry, to demonstrate that precise coordination and shared intelligence represent the ultimate defense against coordinated fraud networks.”

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_{¹ LexisNexis® Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report, 2026}