Verifying individuals’ identities when they’re in person is straightforward. They can provide you with a driver’s license or other form of photo identification, and you can verify that the person presenting the document is the same individual shown in the document.
Identity verification gets a bit more complicated for online services. It becomes harder to verify that the person providing identification documents is the true identity holder. After all, it might not be that difficult for a fraudster to get their hands on a copy of a victim’s driver’s license or passport to create an account without their knowledge.
To combat this fraud risk and strengthen identity verification for online services, providers can implement selfie ID verification.
What is Selfie ID Verification?
Selfie identity (ID) verification is a method that organizations can use to ensure users or customers are who they claim to be during digital account sign-ups. It is often facilitated by automated systems and dedicated identity verification solutions.
After a new user or customer uploads a copy of an identity document, like a driver’s license, the system will prompt them to provide a live video of their face, or a “selfie,” to verify they are the same person.
Selfie ID verification relies on liveness detection technology to ensure the person providing the document is physically present at the time it’s being presented. This might require individuals to follow prompts like turning their heads in a certain direction during the selfie capture.
Overall, liveness detection helps mitigate the risk that a fraudster would use a deep fake or photo of the victim whose identity they’re stealing to complete verification.
The Importance of Selfie ID Verification for KYC
Identity verification is an important aspect of businesses’ know-your-customer (KYC) practices, ensuring they only serve legitimate customers, whether online or offline.
As required by law for certain industries, KYC helps support compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations and avoids serving fraudsters who use fake or stolen identities to shield their true identities.
Thus, selfie ID verification can be used for eKYC (electronic KYC) when customers sign up for services online, and the organization cannot verify their identity in person.
How Does a Selfie ID Verification Work?
Selfie ID verification allows you to confirm a person’s true identity in real time by matching their selfie with their government-issued ID.
Solutions like AuthenticID use a combination of biometric authentication and liveness detection technology to execute selfie ID verification in seconds with over 99% accuracy. Here are the basic steps involved in this process:
1. The user captures a selfie image using their device.
2. The selfie image is compared against the ID document they provided to ensure there’s a match.
3. Liveness detection technology ensures the person completing the verification process has captured the selfie in real time (preventing them from using an image, video, or spoof).
4. Successful verification occurs if there’s a match between the photo on the ID and the captured selfie and if the selfie passes live detection tests.
The Benefits of Selfie ID Verification
Organizations that implement selfie ID verification can enjoy a number of benefits, including:
1. Enhanced Fraud Prevention
Selfie ID verification systems often utilize advanced machine learning and computer vision technology to spot fraud attempts that might otherwise go undetected by humans. Thus, this enhanced security is one of the primary benefits of selfie ID verification systems. As fraudsters’ tactics become more sophisticated, organizations can use selfie ID verification to combat fraud and spoofing attempts with better accuracy. Plus, liveness detection and biometric authentication prevent fraudsters from using screenshots, printed photos, or digitally tampered selfies to bypass verification.
2. Better Customer Convenience
Another clear benefit of using selfie ID verification is that it can be a frictionless way for users to verify their identity.
Rather than visiting a location in person to present their identity documents, the customer can use the front-facing camera or webcam already installed on one of their devices to complete the verification process. This way, customers can still access services and open accounts with providers that aren’t located in the same location.
3. Improved Operational Efficiency
Aside from the seamless user experience and enhanced security benefits, selfie ID verification systems can also enhance operational efficiency, allowing internal teams to spend less time poring over physical documents.
Instead, many selfie ID verification systems leverage automation, speeding up the approval process and reducing or eliminating the need for manual reviews. This way, customers and users benefit from a quicker verification process, while internal teams get more time to focus on more strategic work.
4. Easier Compliance
As discussed above, selfie ID verification can help organizations adhere to relevant compliance requirements, like KYC standards. All verification activity can be stored in detailed logs for easy access and auditing purposes to demonstrate compliance.
Potential Use Cases of Selfie ID Verification
Selfie ID verification can be used across industries to help organizations verify customer identities digitally, mitigate fraud risks, and ensure compliance. Here are some of the specific use cases of this mechanism:
- Financial services: Banks and other financial institutions can use selfie ID verification to streamline the account opening process, enabling customers to complete it online without having to visit a branch in person.
- E-commerce: Those interested in selling on an e-commerce platform may need to confirm their identity with selfie ID verification to prevent the creation of fake accounts for fraudulent purposes.
- Hospitality: Airlines and hotels can use selfie ID verification to enable self-check-ins at a kiosk or online, ensuring only rightful passengers and guests are able to board a flight or access a hotel room.
- Education: Schools can implement selfie ID verification during student enrollment or exam registration, preventing the risk of academic dishonesty and impersonation.
- Real Estate: Landlords and property management companies can use selfie ID verification to confirm the identity of tenants during the application or screening process.