New face recognition technology cuts ID fraud

A new online facial recognition system has been developed that has been decribed as a step closer to the ‘holy grail’ in the fight against identity fraud.

The cloud-based technology enables banks, payment processors, insurance and ID verification companies to dramatically reduce fraud and ID theft. Developers say it will also stop fraud taking place within the motoring claims arena almost instantly.

Users simply add their face to their account via the camera on their laptop, mobile phone or tablet and then the software compares the facial image against a database of faces to flag up possible fraud. Each face is recorded via a video stream and the technology compares multiple images taken throughout the recording to confirm that the person is real and not a photo.

The system has been developed by London-based technology company Facebanx.

Professor Mark Button, director of the Centre for Counter Fraud Studies, said: “Counter-fraud professionals are always looking for the ‘holy grail’ in the fight against identity fraud. Facebanx is an exciting new development and a product which could be one step closer to such a solution.”

He said ID theft, cybercrime, fraud and chargebacks are on the increase and are huge issues for the banking and the online payments industries as fraudsters employ ever more sophisticated techniques to swindle processors out of their money.

The facial recognition technology will help combat ID fraud, money laundering and help restrict access to age-related purchases and gambling.

The software has been designed to meet all banking security standards and cloud-based technology allows multiple users unlimited access worldwide, either on a manual or automated basis. It will significantly help in fraud prevention within the whole financial services industry as well as reduce call centre costs by speeding up the ID checking processes.