Trestle’s Decision Signals API aggregates name, phone, address, email, and IP data in a single request so businesses can support automated risk decisioning at signup, checkout, account opening, and more. In one call, it can evaluate both a primary and secondary set of inputs, cross-checks between relevant attributes, and returns an Identity Score you use to help support automatic approval or rejection decisions. Trusted customers are approved in real-time, and risky identities can be flagged quickly without anyone reviewing them by hand.
What is Decision Signals API? #
Decision Signals API is a comprehensive identity verification solution that aggregates name, phone, address, email, and IP data in one request to support automated risk decisioning. It checks for inconsistencies and risky attributes across those inputs, enabling your fraud platform or risk engine to approve verified identities and reject suspicious ones with confidence. A single request returns 70+ data signals and network insights including match statuses, validity flags, enriched metadata, and distance calculations between inputs.
Most verification tools score one profile in isolation. Decision Signals API gives you the ability to assess primary and secondary identities at once. It scores the primary and secondary profiles and measures how close the two align in the same call. You can cross-check a billing address against a shipping address, an applicant against a co-applicant, or a home profile against a work profile. Decision Signals API then surfaces the relationship between them, such as how far apart the two addresses sit and whether the secondary address links back to the primary resident. A mismatch between two related identities is the kind of risk a single-profile lookup cannot catch, and Decision Signals API exposes it automatically so your decisioning logic can accept or reject with confidence.
All of the underlying signals resolve into a single Identity Score, a value from 0 to 100, that your systems can act on without parsing every attribute beneath it. The score gives you one clean number to automate against, while the underlying signals stay available for when you want to implement more granular rules or integrate them into the machine learning model.
What can you do with Decision Signals API? #
Decision Signals API gives fraud, risk, and onboarding teams an automated way to judge identity risk at the point of decision. With it, you can:
- Verify identities using cross-checked phone, address, email, and IP insights.
- Utilize the Identity Score (0-100) as a single threshold your systems can act on in real-time.
- Compare a primary and secondary profile in one query to catch inconsistencies between the two related identities.
- Approve good customers faster and reduce friction for users who present consistent, low-risk signals.
- Filter risky or mismatched identities before they move further into your funnel.
Decision Signals API is built to power automated risk decisioning. Teams can weigh our identity signals alongside their internal history and own business rules before approving or declining anyone. The API supplies the identity layer your systems can act on instantly.
How Does Primary and Secondary Verification Work? #
Each request supports up to two sets of inputs for name, phone, address, and email data. IP is limited to one per request. Decision Signals API validates each profile independently, then measures how closely the two align. What “primary” and “secondary” represent depends on your workflow:
| Industry | Primary | Secondary |
| Account originations / signup | Home details | Work details |
| Lending / underwriting | Applicant 1 details | Applicant 2 (co-applicant) details |
| eCommerce / card-not-present | Billing details | Shipping details |
| Merchant / small business verification | Business details | Principal’s home details |
When a secondary profile is present, the API also returns relationship signals a primary profile alone can’t produce, such as the distance between the two addresses and whether the secondary address links back to the primary resident. The two profiles are returned in separate blocks, so your systems can rule on each identity independently.
What inputs does Decision Signals API accept? #
Decision Signals API requires one identity input, either primary.name or primary.business_name. The other identity inputs are optional, though the response only includes the data points that correspond to the input data you send. Accepted inputs are:
- Name or Business Name: A primary name or business name is required. A secondary one is optional.
- Phone Number: Optional for the primary and secondary identity sets, with optional country hints for non-U.S. numbers.
- Address: Optional for both identity sets.
- Email: Optional for both identity sets.
- IP Address: Optional, but limited to one IP address per request.
Every request also requires two transaction parameters that label that call: a transaction_id (your correlation ID for the request) and a transaction_time (UTC timestamp).
Please note: Phone, email, and IP data include international coverage. Address data is currently U.S. only.
What is the Identity Score? #
The Identity Score is a single value from 0 to 100 that summarizes how trustworthy an identity is, where a higher score means more trust. The score is additive so each valid, matching signal raises it and each inconsistent or invalid signal lowers it.
To return a score, Decision Signals API needs a name or business name and at least one phone, address, email, or IP address input. A name on its own returns NULL. The more inputs available, the more the score reflects and the higher the signal coverage.
How do I read the Identity Score? #
Use the score as a threshold your systems act on. The tiers below are baseline recommendations. We recommend benchmarking the score against your own outcomes such as confirmed fraud or chargebacks, then setting thresholds that match your risk tolerance. To talk through benchmarks for your use case, schedule a call with us.
| Score | Interpretation |
| 80-100 | High trust. Strong positive signals across inputs. |
| 60-79 | Moderate trust. Most signals align. |
| 50-59 | Neutral baseline. No strong positive or negative signals. |
| 30-49 | Below baseline. One or more negative signals present. |
| 0-29 | Low trust. Multiple significant risk signals detected. |
What does Decision Signals API return? #
For many teams, decisioning can be based on the Identity Score. Underneath it, Decision Signals API returns the checks that contributed towards the aggregate score, so you can fine-tune rules when needed.
When both a primary and secondary profile are present, Decision Signals API runs these checks on each one, returning them in separate blocks so you can rule on the two identities independently. A second profile also unlocks relationship signals the primary alone can’t produce, such as the distance between the two addresses.
| Input | Signals Returned | Scope |
| Phone | Validity, line type, carrier, prepaid status, and matches to the input names and addresses. | Primary and secondary |
| Address | Validity, completeness, resident name match, commercial and forwarder flags, address type. | Primary and secondary, with the secondary block adding its distance from the primary address. |
| Validity, deliverability, disposable-domain detection, an email age score, and owner name match. | Primary and secondary | |
| IP Address | Proxy and VPN risk, geolocation, and the distance from the IP to each address. | One input per query |
These signals are meant for your systems to consume automatically. When you build logic around a specific check, treat a NULL value as its own outcome rather than a default pass or fail.
How does Decision Signals API work with Decision Console? #
Decision Signals API and Decision Console can work in tandem or separately; it just depends on what works best for your business needs. Here’s some examples:
- If you are currently manually reviewing cases on Decision Console but want to automate the process more, you can easily switch to Decision Signals API.
- If you are on the API but realize you actually need to manually review the identities, you can easily switch to Decision Console.
- If you want to automate first but look further into the edge cases, you can use the API first and Decision Console after.
The two products differ in the inputs they accept. Decision Signals API takes a primary and secondary set of inputs for phone and email, so you can cross-check two parties (such as a business phone number and personal phone number) in a single query. Decision Console works with a single phone and single email. If your review depends on comparing two phone numbers or two email addresses, that’s something the API does that the Console does not.
Decision Signals API handles automated decisions at scale, and Decision Console handles the edge cases that need human judgement. They can be used separately or together as independent risk solutions depending on your needs.
What use cases does Decision Signals API support? #
Decision Signals API fits anywhere you need to weigh identity risk in real-time.
- eCommerce: Cross-check billing and shipping profiles to catch suspicious online transactions and card-not-present risk.
- Signup and Onboarding: Clear good users without friction and flag suspicious accounts fast.
- Lending and Underwriting: Cross-check applicant and co-applicant details in one request.
- Marketplace Trust and Safety: Verify both sides of a transaction to protect your community.
How is Decision Signals API different from Real Contact API? #
Real Contact API and Decision Signals API are both identity verification solutions, but they answer different questions. Real Contact API is a lead verification solution that tells you whether a contact is real and reachable, which is what teams use mainly for lead verification and prioritization. Decision Signals API is an identity verification solution that tells you whether the identity behind that contact data carries risk, so you can approve or decline it automatically.
How do I get started? #
Decision Signals API is available upon request. To get access to this API, reach out to support@trestleiq.com or book a meeting.