Is that number still real? How number verification works on your card
Anyone can print any number on a card. Confirming that the number reaches the person holding it is a different thing entirely — and it is now built in.
Every business card ever printed makes the same unchecked claim: this number reaches me. Usually it is true. Sometimes it was true in 2023. Occasionally it was never true at all, because anybody can print anything on a rectangle. The number is a claim, and until somebody checks it, that is all it is.
What verifying actually does
On the edit view of your card, every mobile number carries a Verify button. Press it and we text a six-digit code to that number. Type the code back in and the row gets a green Verified badge. That is the whole loop, and it takes about twenty seconds.
What it proves is narrow and specific, which is exactly why it is worth anything: at this moment, the person signed in to this account could receive a text sent to that number. It does not prove who you are, it does not prove your trade, and it does not prove you are any good at your job. We would rather say what it means than let a badge imply more than it earns.
- The code goes to the number already on your card — never to a number typed into the request. You can only ever verify a number you already own.
- A verification lasts a year, then asks to be re-confirmed. Numbers move house too.
- The number itself is stored against the record as a hash, not in the clear, in the consent trail.
Why re-confirming matters more than verifying
A one-off check at sign-up is close to worthless two years later. UK mobile numbers get recycled, people switch networks and lose a number in the move, businesses change hands. The useful thing is not the first check — it is the fact that the badge expires and has to be earned again. A green badge that never expires is a decoration; one with a clock on it is evidence.
A verification with no expiry date is not a fact about today. It is a fact about the day somebody first pressed the button.
Where the badge shows up
Once a number is confirmed it reads as verified wherever we paint that badge — on your card, and on the contact record if you use CentralContacts. It travels with the number rather than with the card, so it is still true if you make a second card.
What it costs
Nothing. It is part of the free profile, like lead capture and analytics. We are not going to charge somebody for proving their own phone number works.