Equifax Delves Into Selfie Onboarding for Rental Applications

Equifax has unveiled a new Digital Identity Suite solution that was built to streamline the rental application process. In that regard, the solution will make it easier for property managers to verify the identities of their applicants, and thwart those who are trying to rent a home with fraudulent information.

To that end, the Digital Identity Suite comes with a slew of identity verification features, including a document verification tool that uses facial recognition to match a selfie to the image on a photo ID. The feature utilizes the camera in a standard mobile device, thereby giving housing applicants the ability to submit proof of identity remotely.

The Suite will also check with other sources to make sure that the applicant’s email and phone number are legitimate, and to link that information to the mobile device and SIM card being used for the application. The platform’s auto-fill feature will help speed up that process, while the device verification feature guarantees that the device is in the hands of its true owner and provides property managers with another authentication factor.

Finally, the FraudIQ feature analyzes each profile to weed out synthetic identities. The goal is to spot those who are using a stolen name and social security number to fill out their application, which can lead to severe financial losses for landlords and victims if the identity fraud is not caught in time.

The Digital Identity Suite is geared toward those managing multi-family properties. Equifax noted that there are now 44 million rental households in the US, and it expects that number to rise as migration patterns shift in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Improving consumer experience, protecting against identity fraud, lowering application friction and streamlining the screening process can help property managers attract new tenants and maintain higher rental occupancy rates,” said Equifax Enterprise Mortgage and Housing SVP Tom Ciulla. “Our multi-family solutions offer a comprehensive and customizable way for property managers to help build trust with applicants starting at the very first touchpoint.”

Equifax also lets property managers use the Work Number database to verify an applicant’s employment and income status. The company has adopted Okta’s Identity Cloud and Customer Identity solutions to improve its security posture after suffering a high-profile breach in 2017.

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(Originally posted on Mobile ID World)