Objective

I want to block Voice Calls and SMS sent from my account to countries other than X

Applies To

• SMS API
• Messages API (SMS channel)
• Verify API (SMS channel)
• Voice API
• SIP API
• Fraud Defender

Procedure

Fraud Defender offers two ways to restrict your SMS or Voice traffic to only the countries you need:

1. FD Country Management (recommended for broad country-level control)
2. Proactive Traffic Rules (recommended for granular prefix/number-level control)

You can use either method independently, or combine both for layered protection.

Method 1: FD Country Management

The Countries Management feature in Fraud Defender allows you to limit your exposure to fraudulent activity by blocking all destination countries you don't have business with. It provides a simple, visual way to allow or block traffic at the continent or individual country level — for both Voice and SMS channels — with a single click.

How to use it

1. Log in to the Vonage API Dashboard and navigate to Fraud Defender.
2. Scroll to the Protections section and click the Review button on the Countries tile.
3. You will see a list of countries grouped by continent. Toggle countries or entire continents on (allowed) or off (blocked) for each channel (Voice or SMS) as needed.

Example

If you only want to send Voice and SMS traffic to Singapore (SG):

• Block all continents for both Voice and SMS.
• Then enable only Singapore under Asia for the relevant channel(s).

Important Notes

Traffic Rules take precedence over Country Management.

• If you have an Allow traffic rule for a prefix, traffic matching that prefix will not be blocked by the Countries feature.
• If you have a Block traffic rule for a prefix, that traffic will be blocked regardless of whether the destination country is enabled in the Countries feature.

Method 2: Proactive Traffic Rules

Proactive Traffic Rules are a great way to protect your Vonage account against abuse and offer more granular control at the country code, prefix, or individual number level.

Vonage applies a default set of block rules for certain high-risk destination countries. You can use Allow rules to override these defaults.

Customers who want to block all countries except a few selected ones should set up explicit Allow rules for the permitted countries and Block rules for all others.

How to use it

1. Log in to the Vonage API Dashboard and navigate to Fraud Defender > Traffic Rules.
2. Create an Allow rule for each country prefix you want to permit.
3. Create Block rules for all other country prefixes you want to restrict.

Example

If you only want to send Voice traffic to Singapore (SG, prefix: 65), your rules would look like:

Note: Other than the high-risk countries blocked by default, you must set up explicit Block rules to ensure traffic is not sent to other countries from your account.

Which Method Should I Use?

For most use cases where you simply want to restrict traffic to a defined list of countries, FD Country Management is the quickest and easiest option. Use Proactive Traffic Rules when you need finer control, such as blocking specific number ranges within an allowed country.

Additional Information

• Fraud Defender Countries Management Documentation
• Proactive Traffic Rules Documentation

• Number Insight API — Prevent extra charges from traffic sent to invalid destination numbers by validating them first.