Identity theft has been a prevalent crime in today’s digital era. Individuals fall victim to these cyberattacks because their information is unsecured due to their online presence. Imposters use advanced technologies to breach customers’ data and use the stolen information to access their financial accounts for illicit uses. Identity theft occurs when imposters steal the sensitive information of individuals, such as their identity card, social security number, and business account numbers, and use them for their own monetary benefits. According to a report, 441,822 individuals filed complaints about credit identity fraud in 2022.  

Identity theft protection is crucial for businesses and customers to achieve smooth financial operations. Companies must follow regulatory rules to protect themselves and their customers from illicit reach and financial crimes. Criminals engaged in identity theft can use the individual’s monetary balance on the credit cards. They can also give the stolen information to police officers if they ever get arrested, causing severe threats to innocent people. Companies need to incorporate digital identity verification solutions to protect their customers from the harms of identity theft.    

How Different Sort of Identity Theft Fraud Affects Individuals?

Identity theft can occur in various forms and the most common ways in which identity theft can harm the customer’s identities are given below:

• Credit Card Identity Theft: The most specific form of identity theft protection occurs through credit card fraud. The imposters steal the customer’s credit card information and use it for unauthorized access of the owners monetary funds.
• Social Security Number Fraud: Imposters can commit identity theft by accessing a customer’s social security number details. They can use these account details to access the financial loans in the customer’s name. It can also be used to access social benefits as well. 
• Synthetic Fraud: Synthetic identity fraud occurs when scammers create a fake identity by using some real and fake information related to a customer. This information is then used to commit illicit financial transactions and file for loans. They access the customer’s social security number to make unauthorized transactions and harm the company’s financial reputation.
• Theft of Children’s Identity: Scammers use the children’s social security numbers to commit fraudulent activities. This information is used to obtain loan services and protection against arrest warrants. 
• Tax Return Identity Fraud: The individuals are scammed because imposters file for tax refunds by stealing and using the financial information of a legitimate individual. 
• Medical Fraud: Imposters can breach the patient’s medical data and use them for unauthorized access to healthcare services.  They can use the data to access claims of the patient’s insurance policies illicitly. The patient’s stolen records can be sold for thousands of dollars which makes them extremely sensitive to these thefts.          

How Identity Verification Can Prevent Identity Theft?

Companies should incorporate digital identity verification services to combat the occurrence of fraudulent activities related to identity theft. Due to their advanced technologies, these verification services can enhance fraud protection measures.  

• Biometric Solutions 

Biometric identity verification can protect businesses from identity theft threats by providing an additional protection layer using advanced verification technologies. Through biometric verification, customers are prompted to verify their existence through fingerprint scanning and facial characteristic recognition. Only the customers who pass these checks can access the financial services. It ensures that the customer is who they claim to be by authenticating their identities through fingerprint scanning.      

• Facial Recognition Solutions

Facial recognition and liveness detection is an advanced digital identity verification service that scans the customer’s unique facial textures, patterns, and characteristics and compares them to the provided documents to confirm user identity authentication. These services prompt the customers to perform certain tasks, which confirms their liveness. It eliminates the presence of a spoof and protects the company from identity theft.   

• OCR Solutions

Companies can optimize the use of optical character recognition services to ensure that the customer’s identity data is accurately extracted and analyzed with automated methods. Automated data extraction protects companies from unauthorized access by limiting their reach to the company’s sensitive data. 

Additional Preventative Measures for Identity Theft Protection

• When customers are faced with identity theft issues, they must freeze their business accounts immediately. By doing this, imposters’ access to credit records can also be limited. 
• Companies must protect customer’s social security numbers because it is the root of all financial information. It must be protected to encourage secure financial transactions.
• Customers need to monitor their financial and medical prescriptions to ensure that their accounts are not being used illegally. 
• Customers should use strong passwords to ensure protection. This can reduce the identity theft risks as well. 

Summing It Up

Identity theft protection is essential for businesses to protect their customers’ identities from unauthorized access. Identity theft can take many different forms through which they can harm an individual’s identity. Companies should use digital identity verification tools, such as biometric verification, facial recognition, optical character recognition services, and other security measures to protect customers’ identities from unauthorized access.