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Elucidating Age Verification
‘Age verification is the identification of the customer on the basis of their age and also, whether or not they are suitable for the respective assistance.’
Merchandisers of age-restricted services are bound to verify the age of their customers. This is necessary to carry out legit services as well as to comply with the standards, and laws. These include OTC, alcohol, and tobacco sellers, prominent loopholes in these industries are the gaps that so far can be managed by inculcating Know Your Customer’s Customer (KYCC) solutions, not just these online platforms are also at risk of inappropriately aged customers breaching, this somehow can be mended by using age verification solutions. The most exposed are the online dating apps where customers lose millions. As per the data presented by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), there was a triple increase from 2015, in complaints received showing loss of $201 million to romance scams.
How is Age Verification Carried Out?
Many of the businesses are unaware of the benefits of age checks. Due to this, the UK’s gambling firms had to pay £19.6 million in penalties, mainly because of money laundering and below-age gambling. Age verification online is a swift process that provides checkers with instant and authentic results minimizing human error.
- The customer is asked to enter the date of birth mentioned on a government-issued document along with showing the ID card or any other identity document, passport, or driving license in the camera.
- The online AI-technology tool then scans the document and matches the information with the one on the document.
- After the verification is carried out, the results are displayed in front of the provider as well as the back-end office and ultimately stored in the database for future use.
Digital Versus Manual Age Verification
Verifying age has now become a common practice and much accelerated because of the advanced solutions and digitization. As per Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the age limit for buying and selling tobacco and liquor is 18 but this can function well when a customer physically visits the store. In the case of online purchases, the situation is alarming because some of the companies only ask for names and passwords and not for their age. Similarly, another situation is identity fraud that is executed by faking the information, especially loans, pension, illegal purchases, logging in to adult websites, gambling, dating, and gaming. To prevent this menace, there is an immense need for online age verification solutions that are quicker and possess fewer chances of error as compared to manual checks. Customers can readily be verified by using biometric and in-depth AI technology along with machine learning.
Age Verification And KYCC
‘Know Your Customer’s Customer (KYCC) refers to the identification of the client with which the former customer is dealing.’
These are the third parties for the respective company but they still need to be sure that the assistance provided so far is legit. This includes monitoring and assuring that there is no money laundering and exploitation. The most evident example is of the tobacco and liquor merchants. Industries sell and purchase from their customers in bulk and it is not identified beforehand that to whom he will sell. Most of the under-age use fake identities or additional cash to buy stuff. The online effective solutions have enabled the companies to monitor and supervise the customer’s activities along with their clients’ identification.
Why Businesses Are in Need For Online Age Verification Solutions?
With compliance made mandatory by the regulatory authorities, businesses need to incorporate verification solutions to verify age. Owing to online tools companies can identify their customers remotely around the globe, eliminating the man-involved hefty processes.
Corporate Responsibility
The utmost responsibility of any business is to improve its market by authentic onboarding and quality assurance but not to reap monetary benefits. Companies that sell age-restricted products should verify customers’ ages. This will help liquor and drug stores verify the buyers and whether they are legal or not, which is a social responsibility as well as a regulatory standard, companies have to comply with.
Regulatory Compliance
Standards set by the regulatory authorities are the main cause of age verification. They have made it mandatory for the companies to authenticate their clients before assisting them in any way. Failing to do so leads to heavy penalties. The other way around, compliance with these, drives the worth and ranking of the company sky-high.
Fraud Prevention
Children, at times, use their elder’s credentials to make online purchases without any know-how of the product, if there isn’t an age-gate present then the company will have to face consequences including penalties. Similarly, fraudsters make use of fake age and identities to avail benefits like pension, free health services, and age-restricted purchasing. This all can be minimized by using age verification.
Endnotes
Online Age Verification Solutions are the services introduced to protect and guard customer experiences. Companies are confined to selling their products to the legal aged clients and restricting the under-age ones. To ensure this, businesses need to incorporate age verification tools that will help in identifying the clients in real-time and compliance with regulations. These tools screen the documents and match the information. This is not it, companies have to comply with Know Your Customer’s Customer (KYCC) standards to assure that the services are not being manipulated at any end.
