Identity Verification: Using International Data for Reliable Results - Ekata, a Mastercard company
Unlock savings potential now with the ROI Fraud Calculator from Mastercard Identity! Calculate your savings instantly!

Unlock savings potential now with the ROI Fraud Calculator from Mastercard Identity! Calculate your savings instantly!

Global risk assessment 101: The importance of international data in identity verification and fraud prevention 

After 20 years of being at the forefront of identity data, we’re still tackling the toughest of data dilemmas to help companies solve their global risk assessment and international identity verification challenges. These challenges have increasingly become more complex as the world’s digital and mobile modes of operation go global. Balancing a great customer experience with effective fraud protection adds a new layer of difficulty when verifying sign-ups or transactions along the entire customer lifecycle. 

So many of our customers provide global services and products, and it’s difficult to normalize, validate and verify international identity verification data across various markets. So, it made sense for us to tackle this challenge for them.” – Kushal Shah, Director of Product Management, Ekata. 

 And here’s why. There are 195 countries and 61 territories in the world today. In the United States, we are fortunate to have a very mature, public data industry in which there are many diverse types of companies that have built businesses on data monetization. This means we can access vast amounts of data to use for identity verification and fraud prevention.  

Furthermore, data privacy restrictions vary significantly depending on the country, impacting the ability to source data in these countries and hindering international identity verification efforts.  

 In order to navigate the intricate landscape of data privacy regulations and surmount the challenges associated with international identity verifications, we have meticulously curated the Ekata Identity Graph. Boasting a vast data volume exceeding 10TB of data and more than 5 billion identity elements, representing over a billion identities globally.  

 The inclusion of extensive and diverse global data points equips us with the necessary information to offer robust identity data coverage that transcends borders and includes over 238 countries and territories. With this, we are able to address international privacy restrictions effectively and overcome the complex hurdles of global identity verification, ensuring our solutions provide reliable and comprehensive identity information.

Additionally, there are International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards. This is a good thing because ISO International Standards ensure that businesses have the strategic tools they need to develop in new markets and enables developing countries to facilitate free and global trade. 

 As every country has its own unique way of structuring addresses, phone numbers and calling codes, international data “normalization” can seem like a difficult undertaking, but at Ekata, we are very excited about utilizing complex machine learning algorithms to provide a uniform response to global risk assessment challenges by providing the elements of name, email, IP, physical address and phone data.  

 Here is an example of the data normalization challenge that can affect a company that requires global identity verification on customer transactions and how Ekata provides a solution:  

Imagine you are an international airline attempting to verify orders for plane tickets in 46 countries around the globe. You receive the customer’s name, email address, phone number and billing address on all your orders. Unfortunately, you won’t know if the credit card used was stolen until 30-60 days after the flight was taken. To properly perform a global risk assessment, verifying the identity of the purchasing party, you need to ensure the phone number is real, the email is valid, the billing address is legitimate, and the IP address where the order was placed is close to the billing address and isn’t using a proxy server. To do this without Ekata, first, you’d need your own data science team and second, you would have to find address verification services in all 46 countries, build logic around how each provider responds to your request and do so for each data attribute you’re trying to source, aggregate, corroborate and validate. Multiply this across data providers for phones, emails, etc. and the problem compounds into an unmanageable situation, leaving most companies blind when attempting international identity verification on customer transactions.  

By taking on and effectively overcoming the complex challenges around phone numbers, physical addresses, emails and IPs, we are able to deliver dependable and uniform solutions on a global scale. This gives companies the confidence to utilize our data worldwide.

Our foundation and core principles are built around rich, comprehensive and accurate data. We persistently strive to provide industry-leading data not just in North America, but across the globe. This commitment empowers companies to accomplish the following:  

  • Perform international identity verification for shipping; ensuring secure and reliable transactions. 
  • Fine-tune data modeling algorithms; leading to improved accuracy and efficiency in handling complex data sets.  
  • Perform a global risk assessment of transactions; mitigating fraud and ensuring the integrity of transactions.  
  • Standardizing and consolidating multiple data sources; allowing for easier integration and analysis of multiple data sets.  

Utilizing Ekata’s identity verification solutions, companies can access a vast and diverse range of data elements that transcend borders and overcome the challenges they face in a global market surrounding identity verification. By normalizing and verifying international identity data across various markets, Ekata empowers companies to offer a seamless and positive customer experience while ensuring effective fraud protection throughout the entire customer lifecycle.  

Through our commitment to rich, comprehensive and accurate data, we enable businesses to mitigate fraud risk across the globe.  

 To learn more about what data attributes are available in the countries you do business in, contact one of our data experts.  

Start a Free Trial

See how Ekata can reduce fraud risk for your business, contact us for a Demo.