Guardians of Digital Trust "Fraudsters are always finding holes in the system...you lock one area, they'll find a backdoor," Ashok Hariharan, Co-Founder and CEO, IDFY
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As India's digital penetration deepens across Tier I to Tier III cities, the digital economy is thriving, but so are digital frauds. According to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) annual report, digital payment fraud surged more than fivefold to INR 14.57 billion (USD 175 million) in the fiscal year ending March 2024. KYC (Know Your Customer) scams are on the rise, with cases like a 73-year-old Mumbai woman losing INR 2 lakh and an RTO clerk duped of INR 4.35 lakh, exposing the growing vulnerabilities in the system.
Amidst this landscape, IDfy is stepping up to combat fraud with Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions. "We power about 60 per cent of all video KYCs in India," says Ashok Hariharan, Co-founder and CEO of IDfy. The company provides end-to-end verification services for banks, insurance providers, credit card issuers, and online merchants from employee onboarding to authenticating transactions.
Yet, as Ashok points out, fraudsters are constantly evolving. "Fraudsters are always finding holes in the system...you lock one area, they'll find a backdoor." Phishing, digital arrest scams, and mule accounts have proliferated, exploiting weaknesses in systems that rely heavily on physical KYC or less sophisticated technologies. "They target cooperative banks with weaker systems, often colluding with branch managers to bypass manual verification," Ashok adds.
AI, however, is proving to be a formidable defense. "Deepfake detection, device mimicry, and intrusion attacks – we can catch all of this today," Ashok explains. By using AI models that analyse anomalies, IDfy can flag suspicious transactions such as a low-income applicant seeking a high-value loan. "A person living in Dharavi applying for a INR 10 crore loan that's anomalous," he highlights.
IDfy's platform operates on four fundamental questions: Does the individual exist? Is the person the one transacting? Have they committed fraud before? Are they likely to commit fraud in the future? With AI, the company matches PAN card selfies to live photos, preventing fraudsters from impersonating others.
It also cross-references court records and prior transactions to strengthen fraud detection. The need for such rigorous checks is clear. "In a test with cab aggregator platforms, seven per cent of vehicles we flagged were linked to drivers with criminal records or vehicles involved in hit-and-run cases," Ashok reveals.
