Even in the days when technology was not around, identity theft was a well-known crime. It can be as simple as using someone else’s ID card to enter a specific area, or shopping online using another person’s credit card.
Identity verification is something that businesses always carry out in order to keep their systems secure and to prevent crimes directly or indirectly related to identity thefts. Banks, government institutions, and even the health sector face issues of identity fraud, where fraudsters harm the systems by manipulating their employees’ identities.
Financial Identity Theft
The banking sector is the most targeted industry when it comes to identity theft. According to research, in 2020, 47% of the US population became the victims of financial crimes linked with identity theft.
This doesn’t just affect the customers, but it also has adverse effects on the business. The use of credit cards belonging to another person in fraudulent activities results in the degradation of the banks’ value as well.
In many cases, where large amounts of money are involved, banks have to pay fines for their customers’ stolen funds. Moreover, the customers lose their trust in the system and the organization earns a bad reputation.
Due to this, governing authorities around the world encourage businesses to incorporate identity verification services. The identity verification process ensures that the people involved are real customers and not fraudsters using someone else’s identity.
Medical Identity Theft
The healthcare industry faces troubles linked with identity theft too. Not just patients, but also employees of hospitals are targeted. Usually, fake identities are used to get free medical services, or even prohibited drugs.
Social Security & Credit Cards
The most vital information about a person is their social security number, and it must be protected at all costs. Criminals can use someone else’s social security number to avoid paying taxes by registering a business according to their liking.
Similarly, credit card fraud is very common, not just because of the smart criminals, but also due to the negligence of the credit cards’ beholder. Not all users are careful with their PINs and passwords, and those fall victim to credit card fraud. Once a fraudster gets access to someone’s credit card, it’s a matter of minutes to make a transaction and that’s the end of the story.
Synthetic Identities
This new type of identity theft uses a mixture of some authentic information from an actual person’s identity information, and fake information created by the imposter. In many cases, it’s hard to detect these kinds of identity thieves, because some of the information is real.
Synthetic identities are used by criminals to enter areas where they are not allowed to enter by convincing the authority that they are someone else.
Digital Identity Verification to Prevent Identity Theft
With the increasing numbers of identity theft cases, security measures must be implemented by organizations in order to know who they are dealing with.
When criminals are making use of technology in evil acts , it’s important for companies to stay one step ahead by finding solutions to restrict fraudsters’ activities
In fact, it has been made mandatory for companies to carry out customer identity verification, so that the problem is fixed before it starts. Once a person with a fake identity enters the system, crimes like money laundering are imminent.
Identity verification solutions of today have greatly improved the overall business experience. The process involves thorough checking of the customers’ identity starting from their face, and goes all the way to check their background information, and transactions made in the past, etc.
● Biometric Identity Verification
With the use of biometrics, facial verification ensures that only the actual person goes through the identification process, hence avoiding identity theft.
The face of the person is checked in detail, including the expressions, depths and contours using technologies like liveness detection. With the use of such technology, criminals using photoshopped images of someone else can be easily detected and rejected.
The process doesn’t end here; Once a person’s identity is successfully verified, the history of payments, and even political connections are inspected. Political backgrounds are verified because money laundering cases are usually traced with politically exposed people.
Final Thoughts
To wrap it up, organizations can avoid becoming victims of identity theft by making secure environments for themselves and their customers, and ensuring that the people they deal with are authentic customers. Identity verification process is a necessity in today’s world of ever-increasing identity theft.
