In a world where individuals can create many digital and synthetic identities, strong online identity verification and authentication services and know your customer (KYC) processes are becoming exponentially more important to organizations. When implemented correctly, these tools drastically reduce fraud rates.

To talk more about the importance of identity verification and KYC, PaymentsJournal sat down with Dean Nicolls, VP of Global Marketing at Jumio, and Tim Sloane, VP of Payments Innovation at Mercator Advisory Group.

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Quickly Connecting Online and Real World Identities is a Must

In today’s digital world, it is important to be able to quickly and accurately connect a person’s online and real-world identities. Traditionally, fraudsters would enter another person’s credentials, such as their name, address, and Social Security number, to perform functions like opening a bank account. Of course, it was not legitimate because they were not who they claimed to be.

But modern fraudsters have evolved alongside rapid digital transformation, and no longer exclusively steal a person’s identity as a whole. They can also cherry-pick what they want in order to create a synthetic identity, adding a new layer of complexity in preventing identity fraud. Even more alarmingly, cybercriminals have taken advantage of the rise of e-commerce amid the COVID-19 pandemic to commit more fraud. 

A Government ID with a Corroborating Selfie: A Better Way to Verify Identity

Jumio’s groundbreaking end-to-end identity verification solutions require users to provide a copy of a government issued ID – a passport, driver’s license, or ID card – as well as a selfie taken with a webcam or smartphone. This is a seamless way to ensure that their identity is legitimate and authentic and that the person in possession of the ID who they claim to be.

Further, informed artificial intelligence (AI) is leveraged to automate as much of the process as possible. This includes performing 20 different kinds of checks against the ID to make sure it’s legitimate and matching the selfie with the ID in less than 30 seconds.

An extra layer of verification is liveness detection, which determines that the individual is actually physically present and not simply holding a picture or using a video to circumvent the selfie requirement. By layering in liveness detection, companies can have a much higher level of assurance that the person is not att...