Security of sensitive consumer data has become a hot topic for businesses due to the increasing numbers of high-profile data breaches. Identity theft through stolen credit card credentials is on the rise, accounting for 41.8% of all identity theft reports. Verifying identities accurately has become an essential part of the Know Your Customer (KYC) process as it benefits organizations by not only staying compliant, but also by developing a stronger customer-client relationship.
However, overcoming the challenges of Identity theft is like fighting fire with fire. The very technology that enables ID theft, helps combat it too. For this purpose, businesses are arming themselves with these technologies to protect themselves and the personal information of their customers from hacks, viruses and identity theft. As identity theft evolves, so do authentication procedures like Document and Age Verification. Through AI-powered ID verification solutions, validating a person to filter out fraudsters is not a problem anymore. To better grasp the importance of verification software, let?s take a look at how your identity details might be compromised:
1. Lost or Stolen Wallets
As thieves can steal your information for their gain. In this case, individuals should temporarily have their cards turned off or permanently canceled while issuing a new card.
2. Using Public WiFi
As hackers can gain access to all the activities you do online. Accounts of any sort should not be logged into, and it is preferable to use private networks.
3. Spoofing or Phishing
By sending an official-looking email, fraudsters try to get you to disclose information like bank account details, social security number, credit card details, etc.
4. Mobile Phone Scams
A caller may pretend like you have won some special prize and request you to share sensitive information in order to avail the prize. Such information should never be disclosed over phone calls.
Apart from these, it is also important to shed light on another long-standing target of cybercriminals that is causing a rise in identity theft cases – Baby Boomers. According to reports made to FTC (Federal Trade Commission), in 2020, individuals in the age group of 30 – 39 were the most targeted group for identity theft in the United States, followed by the age group of 40 – 49 as the second most vulnerable target.
With that being said, minors and children are not immune to this threat. 2017 recorded the highest amount of child identity theft cases, with the number of victims reaching over 1 million. This is why businesses are increasingly investing in Identity Verification Software for the purpose of minimizing identity theft by making age checks in advance. One such example is that of the online gaming industry.
Minimizing Chances of Child Identity Theft in the Gaming Industry
In recent times, children can become players of any age online. As a result, they can easily be targeted for numerous scams or taken advantage of. Additionally, they are 51 times more likely to become victims of identity theft as compared to adults. By 2025, the projected market volume of the gaming industry is expected to grow to US$ 6,345 million, with the revenue expected to show an annual growth rate of 7%. Child identity theft in the gaming industry occurs when fraudsters steal a minor’s personally identifiable information (PII). Examples of PII include the children?s full name, Social Security Number (SSN), DoBs, physical addresses and social media details.
Therefore, it does not come as a surprise that many gaming companies have added a step of making ?age checks? to their games in order to ensure that the required age to play is aligned with the age of the players. This can be done in the following ways:
- Adding Checkboxes: This includes a section when making an online profile that requires players to check a box that says ?I?m 18?. Other? sites may also ask for the DoB to verify the legal age. This is a self-verification method and therefore not very effective, as children might provide a different date of birth to be able to check the box.
- Credit/Debit Cards: Credit and debit cards also make age verification possible. If children use these cards to make in-game purchases, the cardholder gets an alert about all the suspicious transactions. This way, adults can easily keep an eye out to protect their kids in case they are trying to access an age-restricted platform.
- Liveness Detection: Liveness detection has proven to be helpful for detecting spoof attacks and for identifying minors through 3-D depth perception and skin texture analysis.
