Identity Authentication - Fraud Library

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Electronic Identity authentication is the ability to collect, authenticate and confirm the personally identifiable information provided by a end user. This could be as simple as being able to match a name, address and phone number, to verifying more specific data such as date of birth, social security number of national identity number.

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I am the real "John Doe"...

Electronic Identity authentication is the ability to collect, authenticate and confirm the personally identifiable information provided by a end user. This could be as simple as being able to match a name, address and phone number, to verifying more specific data such as date of birth, social security number of national identity number.

Identity authentication serves not only to prevent fraud, but is also a requirement in some cases under the "know Your Customer" KYC requirements of the Patriot Act. In its' simplest form identity authentication is used to cross check the address and phone information a user has provided to you with a third-party resource to verify that the public records show the same information.

How Good Is It? 

Identity authentication is very effective, and can provide the most relevant information to a user's identity. It should be understood that Identity Authentication alone, can easily be beaten by a fraudster, performing authentication without verification leaves you susceptible to fraudsters using stolen identities.

“Gotchas” with reverse look-ups include:

• There are a lot of ways to fool this test

• There are people who move a lot, such as military families, in which multiple phone numbers and address may be in the public records

• There are lag periods between refreshes of the address and phone data

• In cases of identity theft, a fraudster can set up these services to look completely legitimate

• Good secondary test for checking AVS data when it is not a full match

• Typically cannot validate unlisted phone numbers

• More and more people are listing cell phone numbers and business phone numbers

• If you use it to check the shipping address, there are valid cases in which a consumer could be sending packages or gifts to a relative’s home to pick up later

Considerations When Implementing or Buying This Functionality    

Available as a hosted bureau service or you can purchase monthly and quarterly SW distribution of data

• How often will your provider update the information or update their software?

• Will the data include cell phones and business phones?

• Are there any dead spots where information is not provided such as, international, Canada, Puerto Rico?

• What is the accuracy of the data they have? Try them out: Have ten people’s information from around the country and see how well the service validates the information. Include someone who has been in place for a while, one that has recently moved and one that owns multiple properties.

Estimated Costs – Typically this service is offered on a per-transaction basis, but you can also purchase it as a subscription. There are some very low cost providers online, that have hosted screens for you to input data manually as well. This service is usually fairly inexpensive.

Alternative Solutions – Out of wallet checks, reverse lookups, credit checks.

Vendors –, 192.com, CardCops, Experian, IDAnalytics, , Equifax, ChoicePoint, Lexis Nexis, Idology, Veratad

How Does it Work?  

If using it as a manual tool, you would enter the individual’s information into a hosted screen or utility their IT shop has set up for you, and the service or application would come back with some mix of the following types of results:

• A full match

• Partial match

• Multiple matches to data element "XXXXXXX"

• Known negative indicators with data element "XXXXXX"

• Not found

How Do I Use the Results?  

You verify this data and see if it matches.

Building This In-House 

N/A

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