Verify tightens fraud prevention geo permissions for Italy and Argentina

Twilio has observed  a sudden rise in SMS Pumping fraud (aka SMS Artificially Inflated Traffic) targeting messages to Italy (IT) and Argentina (AR). To protect customers from this activity, Twilio Verify is tightening its fraud prevention posture for these two countries, effective August 19, 2026.

Specifically, Twilio is  updating the default Verify Geo Permissions setting for Italy and Argentina from "Allow all traffic" — the default state at account creation — to "Monitor all traffic for fraud." This change applies to all existing  accounts where IT and/or AR remain in  the default "Allow all traffic" state.

What this means for customers

• If your account still has IT and/or AR set to the default "Allow all traffic" permission, it will be updated to "Monitor all traffic for fraud" starting August 19, 2026.

• If you've already changed the geo permission for IT or AR away from the default “Allow all traffic” (to any other state), your configuration will not be modified by this update.

• The protection provided by "Monitor all traffic for fraud" requires that you have Fraud Guard enabled. 

• No action is required for customers with Fraud Guard enabled. This update happens automatically for in-scope accounts. Customers that revert the status back to “Allow all traffic” risk SMS Pumping fraud and are responsible for payment to all traffic to IT and AR.

• You can review or change your geo permissions at any time from the Verify Geo Permissions page in the Twilio Console.