Over the last few years, the e-commerce industry has boomed. Pandemic last year has also pushed businesses to serve through online platforms. Many people opted for digital services like shopping essentials online, mobile banking, and even the education sector started conducting classes online. As much as it is good news that now the users are able to get their thing done from the comfort of their homes, there is a downside to it as well. The adverse effect of the online world is that fraudsters have become sophisticated. Digital identity verification is effective in combating these crimes.
The pandemic last year has forced many businesses to shut their doors temporarily. While the businesses that managed to keep their work going have taken advantage of the other companies that were shut down at that time. However, the digital proceedings of a business have never been easy. Criminals did not spare a chance of taking advantage of that period of uncertainty and rapid shift.
Fraud Threats
Cybercriminals adapted to the change rapidly, advancing their capabilities and targeting digital transactions. Moreover, fraudsters made use of identity theft, ransomware, and phishing attacks to invade businesses and their customers. Digital identity verification services are what helped the e-commerce platforms at that time.
Defense Mechanism of E-commerce against Fraud
In the wake of this situation, the e-commerce industry has to double down its efforts to make sure that transactions are secured and customers are legitimate. They also made sure to comply with know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) laws. This meant making use of the greater use of digital identity verification solutions to authenticate new users, protecting existing customers from account takeovers, and preventing fraudulent transactions.
However, merchants must consider the customer experience as well. Users of digital services are accustomed to processing the work operations at a faster speed. If the verification procedures would take longer to complete, it will have a negative impact on the user experience. It is, therefore, important for businesses to strike the right balance between digital identity verification and providing a streamlined user experience.
What is meant by Digital Identity Verification?
On a simpler note, identity verification means checking that a person is really who they say they are. It is significant to prevent fraudsters from committing fraud. In the e-commerce industry, digital identity verification means verifying the information of users such as postal addresses and phone numbers to identify individuals. The data can be collected from a range of sources like building societies and banks.
Contextual data like device information and IP addresses are also required to verify that the customer really exists. For instance, ID checks are needed when the customer’s account is accessed from new advice. For online identity verification, the customers are asked to provide proof of identity. That can be a code sent to customers via mobile device or email address.
There are several other times when the digital identity verification of customers is required. For instance, at the time of account opening, while buying an age-restricted product such as alcohol or making a high-value purchase.
The importance of identity validation for Online retailers
The E-commerce sector is at the head of the list of fraudsters to commit crimes. They are using stolen or false identities to perform online transactions. Threats include phishing attacks, account takeovers, and payment card frauds, where criminals impersonate retailer messages to gain access to the accounts of retailers.
A number of customers now hesitate to shop online because they feel their information has already been stolen. Digital identity verification is a significant part of retailers’ arsenal in their fight against identity fraud. They spot and stop the fraud by using ID card verification as the solution while delivering a seamless experience to customers during their experience in online shopping.
Fighting the threat of digital identity theft
In this age, fraudsters are becoming so clever in their tricks that they left the retailers feeling unprecedented. Many e-commerce stores are constantly concerned about increasing growing threats like synthetic identity theft, which combines together genuine and fake customer information to create a new identity. These threats can be removed by employing digital identity verification of customers.
To make sure that transactions and customers are always secured, e-commerce retailers should evolve their approach. Digital identity verification is a dire need of this age. Enhanced usage of real-time machine learning can assist companies that trade digitally to fight theft at scale while confirming that optimal user experience is achieved.
Conclusion
There is no doubt every industry is facing crimes these days. Especially the e-commerce industry is under attack by fraudsters. There is only one way to protect the security of such platforms and that is digital identity verification. E-commerce is making sure that they keep the balance between facilitating customers with the best possible services and protecting the security of their users.
