TransUnion is expanding the geographic reach of its instant Document Verification service in response to the pandemic, with more users requiring ID confirmation from remote locations as fraud risks hit new highs.
Phishing remains the top digital fraud scheme worldwide, with 27% of consumers reporting contact with some kind of coronavirus-related phishing scam in recent months, according to a global survey TransUnion conducted among almost 8,000 consumers between June 30 and July 6, 2020.
Document Verification, which enables instant verification of consumer identities for account access and actions, went live in the U.S. and a handful of other countries in 2018. TransUnion recently began accelerating its rollout to more global markets with demand rising from new sectors, the company announced this week.
“As more consumers turned online for transactions during the pandemic due to social distancing measures, it has become increasingly important for businesses to verify a person’s identity on faceless channels,” said Bala Kumar, vice president of product management for TransUnion’s global fraud and identity solutions group.
A growing number of government agencies and real estate industry operators have turned to the service this year to confirm consumer identities when face-to-face contact isn’t possible, Kumar said. Banks and insurance companies remain core users, he added.
Document Verification triangulates various data and technologies to determine whether an identity document like a passport or driver’s license is legitimate. The process measures the risk factors of the device used to capture the document image and validates the authenticity of the identity information within the document.
An optional feature compares an immediate selfie of the consumer against the document’s photo. In some markets, Document Verification matches IDs against a government’s database of issued documents. The service leverages technology from Iovation, which TransUnion purchased in 2018.
Document Verification is live in the U.K., Spain, India, Hong Kong and the Philippines, and TransUnion plans to extend the service to more markets before the end of the year.
