Maintaining Platform Integrity with Layered Consumer Identity Verification - Ekata, a Mastercard company
Ekata is part of the Mastercard family. Ekata's solutions provide the most predictive and frictionless identity verification.

Ekata is part of the Mastercard family. Ekata's solutions provide the most predictive and frictionless identity verification.

Maintaining Platform Integrity with Layered Consumer Identity Verification

Consumer technology services platforms are expected to maximize growth, but they also are challenged to maintain platform integrity. The latter has become increasingly difficult as the number of bad actors accessing platforms continues to rise. Fortunately, there are consumer identity verification solutions that provide marketers and trust and safety experts the dexterity to meet the friction and risk thresholds established for their businesses.

Many of our customers experience the tension between the risk/trust and safety team and marketing/growth teams. The former optimize for minimal loss and the latter optimizes for acquisition rates. Friction is the knob used to accomplish these goals—such as verifying the identity of customers by the number of inputs and steps required to onboard customers to the platform.

Fortunately, third-party data can be added to address both parties objectives. Risk teams can add an entirely new level of intelligence without altering the workflow. Additionally, in cases where the friction is too high, signup flows can be reduced to the essential elements (like phone verification) to simplify the process, while still capturing enough information to properly vet new users.

Another challenge we’ve seen is the influx of signups when our customers launch new products. Promotional credits, like a free ride, are typically part of a marketing launch strategy. Some users will game the system in order to maximize these credits—intending to only use the promotional credit and not use the service again.

These users not only cost the company money, but also throw off the metrics for marketing reports. This makes it nearly impossible to understand the real influence of these campaigns, especially with a new user base and limited customer signals.

As technology platforms mature, they shift from growth to optimization. There are a number of opportunities to dial-up verification processes. At Ekata, we think of solutions from the following “layered” point of view:

  • Validation: At the bare minimum, steps should be taken to make sure contact points, like phone, email, and address, are real—basic syntax checks are not enough.
  • Identification: Learning more about the characteristics of the device or person you are verifying can deliver the needed insight to determine risk category.
  • Verification: Typically the identity details used in synthetic ID fraud combine acquired lists, which can be stolen or purchased, with made up information.

Ekata has a number of solutions that can help consumer platforms increase platform integrity. These solutions can meet the needs of risk and marketing teams and also help platforms as the move to optimize their businesses.

 

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