Why Liveness Detection Matters: Insights from the Legal Tech Frontline
The Evolution of Trust in Remote Transactions
When Jay Krushell – co-founder of Treefort Technologies and a practicing lawyer in Canada – started exploring remote identity verification solutions, he began with a straightforward but critical challenge: how could he, as a practicing lawyer in Edmonton, meet with clients virtually to sign important documents like mortgages?
"Really how the journey started for me is I had a problem I wanted to solve in my legal practice," Mr Krushell explains. "What I wanted to be able to do was to meet with my clients virtually to sign documents like mortgages."
This newsletter covers Jay Krushell’s legal tech success story and reveals critical insights for anyone handling sensitive digital transactions.
?? The Setup: A Lawyer's Digital Dilemma
The motivation went beyond mere convenience:
From Frustration To Innovation
What started as a quest for convenience revealed a more complex challenge:
Jay discovered something surprising: compliance alone wasn't enough to prevent fraud. While checking boxes for regulatory requirements was straightforward, actually preventing sophisticated identity fraud required a fundamentally different approach.
The Compliance vs. Security Gap
?? Key Insight: "There's a fundamental difference between compliance and fraud prevention," Jay explains. "When you look at the rules about what you're required by law to do, each of those things is very easy for fraudsters to get around."
Consider a simple credit file check: while it can confirm that a person named John Smith exists at a particular address, it does nothing to verify that the person attempting the transaction is actually John Smith. This gap between verification and reality is where sophisticated fraud flourishes.
?? The Rise of Sophisticated Fraud
The stakes are staggering. Jay shares a sobering real-life example:
?? "Imagine you're over in Dubai for six months and decide to rent out your property. You come back and discover the person you rented to was a fraudster. They sold your house pretending to be you, and you come home to find an innocent third-party buyer living there."?
This isn't just about money – it's about real people facing devastating consequences. Both the original homeowner and the legitimate buyer become victims, and banks and other institutions are also impacted.
?? Why Traditional Methods Fall Short
One of the most striking insights is how sophisticated fake IDs have become.
?Did you know? "These days, what we see in the marketplace are ID cards that are so good that even the people in the forensic labs with the microscopes and UV lights have a hard time detecting them as fake."
This is why simply checking government-issued ID – even with careful human inspection – is no longer sufficient protection against determined fraudsters.
领英推荐
??? The Power of Liveness Detection
This is where liveness detection becomes crucial. As Jay explains, "The liveness detection is that connection... Without it, you can have a bunch of checks that are separate and apart from the person you're interacting with, and there's no way to connect the two."
Key benefits of liveness detection:
?? The adoption of iProov facial biometrics in Treefort’s Multi-Factor Authentication process reduced impersonation attacks by over 80%. See the solution in action:
The Sweet Spot: 3-5 Minute Identity Verification
Jay's experience revealed that the sweet spot for identity verification is between 3-5 minutes. "Anything longer than that and the drop-off rates increased to an unacceptable level. Anything less than that, you lose the fraud prevention value of the technologies."
Remote identity verification, when done right, can:
Looking Ahead: Digital Credentials Aren't Enough
?? A crucial warning: don't assume digital credentials alone will solve these problems. "I strongly believe that digital credentials without the strongest possible ID verification upfront when the credential is issued exacerbates the problem."
Why? Because a credential that's issued without proper verification simply makes it easier for fraudsters to operate. The credential itself might be technically valid, but if the wrong person obtained it, that validation becomes meaningless.
The Bottom Line
?? Compliance ≠ Security. Remote identity verification isn't just about checking boxes or following compliance guidelines. It's about creating a robust, multi-layered approach that includes:
As Jay emphasizes, "In situations where you're dealing with real estate, where there is a lot of money to be stolen, I would strongly suggest that you implement strategies that involve more than just looking at the IDs... You need to rely on technologies and other checks to stop this kind of fraud."
As remote transactions become increasingly common, the insights from frontline practitioners like Treefort Technologies become invaluable. The message is clear: while compliance is necessary, true security requires going beyond minimum requirements to implement robust, multi-layered verification processes that include liveness detection.
?? Want to Learn More?
??Watch the full webinar with Jay Krushell and Maxine Most on demand here.
For a consultative look into your use case, pain points, and how our science-based biometric facial verification solutions can solve your organization's demands: book your iProov demo today.
Best regards, The iProov Team