Ipsidy Pushes Biometric Identity Tech to Combat COVID Unemployment Fraud

Ipsidy is pushing a new suite of biometric identity verification solutions to help US states comply with the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. The Act was passed to address unemployment fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic, and forces state agencies to verify the identities of applicants before distributing pandemic unemployment assistance.

As it stands, false benefit claims have led to more than $36 billion in fraud losses in 2020. Much of that fraud occurs when cybercriminals file a claim using someone else’s name. However, state governments have not been able to stop it because they are not taking the necessary steps to confirm the identities of those applicants.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act is intended to address that imbalance. The Act amends the CARES Act of 2020, and makes federal funding available to states that need to implement new identity verification technologies.

Ipsidy, meanwhile, is hoping to capitalize on that opportunity with its latest offering. The company’s solution uses facial recognition to match a selfie to the image on an official government ID, such as a driver’s license. It also uses document recognition to make sure that that identity document is genuine. The solution is compliant with the latest GDPR, FIDO2, and NIST privacy guidelines, and can be integrated into an online claims portal through a simple API.

Unemployment fraud spiked during the pandemic as fraudsters took advantage of the high volume of legitimate claims to mask their activities. Acuant previously reported that the price tag for such fraud was as high as $2 billion in California alone, which is in keeping with the $36 billion figure for the country at large.

Ipsidy joined the FIDO Alliance in September of 2020. Since then, CEO Phillip Kumnick has taken over as the new Chairman of the Board following the retirement of former Chairman and CEO Philip Beck.

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January 6, 2021 – by Eric Weiss