2 ways to verify identity and prevent fraud for auto dealerships

ID being scanned during the automotive purchase process

Last updated on October 16th, 2024 at 09:34 am

In a recent analysis of all IDs scanned by our automotive customers, an average of 4.15% of IDs presented to automotive businesses in North America showed signs of being fraudulent. This echoes recent data from Experian: identity fraud related in the automotive industry accounted for $619 million in losses in 2022 and 79% of car dealerships have reported experiencing identity fraud-related vehicle loss. 

With fake ID technology becoming more sophisticated, these are the top 2 ways to verify identity and prevent ID fraud and theft for auto dealerships and car rental businesses.

Verify identity on-site at the dealership

VeriScan Authentication is a sophisticated, AI powered identity verification software that can catch up to 95% of fake IDs. ID authentication is an ideal solution for dealerships who want to verify the identity of individuals at the lot. On-site identity verification can help deter walk-in fraudsters, and improve data integrity and privacy of all customers, since it eliminates the need for manual data entry or photocopies of IDs. 

Your salesperson, loan officer, or front desk agent simply scans the guest’s ID, and quickly receives back information about the ID’s validity. 

This is done through a series of security checks under multiple light wavelengths, using specialty hardware. A phone, or low end scanner, will not be equipped with the type of camera or lighting required to truly put an ID through its paces. 

Add Additional Third party checks to VeriScan

Auto dealerships or car rental companies can also benefit from layered fraud prevention that includes a third party check such as DMV Checks. These third party checks query an external database that can confirm whether the information on the ID matches the jurisdictional records at the DMV. These checks will confirm whether or not you have a real identity on your hands – the only way they can be passed is if the data on the ID matches the data of a real person exactly.

The combination of VeriScan ID Authentication and third party checks is almost perfect in the success rate of catching fake IDs and helping to reduce fraud at auto dealerships.

Verify identity remotely for online car sales or car rentals

Person verifying identity digitally

For those automotive dealerships looking for customers’ identities to be verified in advance of their visit, Digital Identity Verification (DIVE) is our top recommendation to help prevent fraud in the auto industry. 

Our DIVE Online platform allows you to initiate identity verification via text message or email. The customers are sent a verification request which takes them to a browser-based workflow which verifies their ID and performs a selfie-based face match. The entire process is performed on their mobile device and takes <30 seconds to complete.

The selfie process ensures that the prospective customer’s face matches the face on their ID. And spoofing is prevented through a series of liveness checks – this prevents the use of stolen or borrowed IDs. Our proprietary algorithm assigns a similarity score, and if this score is above a certain threshold, the identity is considered verified.

Add third party checks to DIVE

IdentiFraud is the one of the most reliable third party checks on the market today for identity verification and age verification in the auto industry. By submitting consumer-provided information, IdentiFraud provides detailed verification of identity data within a matter of seconds. With IdentiFraud, using data captured from an ID and an ID number (SSN is not required), it provides a level of certainty that you are conducting business with the real ID holder.

Preventing identity fraud at your automotive business

Regardless of whether you decide to deploy DIVE, or the use of on-site authentication, or even both our software can help. With a 95% success rate in catching fake IDs, these are 2 ways to prevent fraud for auto dealerships. Be sure to schedule a demo with our team to see these solutions in action. 

Start verifying identity today

We work with businesses of all sizes to provide scalable solutions to their identity verification challenges.