Do you want to lower your company’s fraud risk? Some estimates show the global costs of fraud total about AUD6.5 trillion every year. Today, tools like secure servers and strong encryption are tools that can help protect e-commerce companies from fraud. Another option is the know your customer (KYC) process offered by KYC providers to provide information about potential customers, including identity and address.
What Exactly Is KYC?
This digital search procedure is a way for your business to instantly verify customers’ identity. You can access several databases to look for matches for your customers. This is a fast and efficient method for reducing fraud due to methods like identity theft.
This process can also include biometrics, which uses human characteristics to identify people. Photos, fingerprints, and signatures are some of the most common biometrics that the retail and financial sectors use to verify people’s identities. Today, technologies like facial recognition systems use artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool to detect fraud.
A business can access several possible benefits from KYC, including the following:
- Instant Verification
KYC systems can quickly search through several databases to look for matches. It’s become more important in the digital age than ever for companies to provide fast customer service.
Customer satisfaction is critical to turn new customers into loyal customers. While today’s customers are often looking for personalised service, they’re also looking for fast service.
For example, the average load time for mobile web pages is 22 seconds. Customers are unlikely to keep visiting online retailers that take longer to load.
- Large Databases
Another possible benefit of KYC processes is they can access large multi-national databases that can include billions of people. Today the world’s population is nearing 8 billion. When systems can access several large databases, this increases the chance of finding more matches and preventing cybercrimes.
One of the features to look for is multi-layered identification methods. This involves accessing several independent and trustworthy databases.
- Regional Searches
This is important when searching for identities in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, for example. It’s important for KYC systems to cover a vast majority of the region to boost the chance of finding matches. It’s more likely for fraud to originate in the same region where your business is located.
The main regions of APAC include:
- South
- East
- South-East
- Oceana
The largest country is China, which in 2020 had a population of over 1.4 billion. Meanwhile, Market Watch reports the world’s countries with the largest amount of fraud include Indonesia in South-East Asia. Countries with the least amount of fraud include New Zealand in Oceania.
- Industries Covered
Searches can be conducted in different industries, including:
- E-commerce
- Government
- Telecommunications
- Real Estate
- Gaming
These are some of the various industries in which fraud might take place. The e-commerce sector is booming with an estimated value of AUD4.4 trillion, according to Statista. This makes it critical for online stores to protect themselves from cybercrimes and identity theft.
- Employment and Student Screening
These are some specific sectors where fraud often occurs. Anti-fraud searches can also look for matches to verify that potential customers work for the company or attend the school they claim.
In fact, the company and school IDs are very common, so it’s important to protect your company from this possible source of identity theft.
Today the Internet has made it easier for companies to shop while increasing the risk of fraud. Companies can protect themselves through KYC providers by accessing multiple reliable databases that include billions of people. Such tools can help to protect your investment, customers, and reputation.
