WHAT IS IDENTITY FRAUD THROUGH FACIAL SPOOFING? THE NEW SPOOFING ATTACK

Identity fraud on the Internet is a practice that has been growing in recent years. It refers to the various techniques used by fraudsters to pretend to be someone else to commit a crime or bank identity fraud, usually linked to money laundering.

Although many spoofing fraud attacks are done through e-mail or a computer, some other types of spoofing attacks are less known by the general public and by companies but more dangerous. That is why having IP spoofing or DNS spoofing protection or anti email spoofing technology is not enough.

One spoofing attack that stands out among the others for its damage is Facial Spoofing. This type of spoofing attack consists of imitating or using a person’s face to pretend to be that person and trying to trick the facial biometric identification control systems to commit bank identity fraud.

However, the development of anti-spoofing technology and solutions linked to cybersecurity has given rise to what is known as anti-spoofing face recognition. By definition, facial anti-spoofing protection is an anti-spoofing technology that blocks and alerts the relevant authorities or entities related to protecting the rights of users and the companies they interact with on a daily basis, such as their bank, mobile phone company, or insurance company.

WHAT IS SPOOFING: MEANING AND HOW TO PREVENT A SPOOFING ATTACK?

The increase in cyber-attacks and words such as phishing, or deepfake, leads us to wonder what is exactly facial spoofing, how it is carried out for banking identity fraud, and how we can protect ourselves from spoofing fraud.

There are several ways an offender can perform a spoofing attack, but the most dangerous and common one is facial spoofing fraud.

Facial Spoofing: meaning and definition

Facial spoofing is the act of using a person’s face and simulating their facial biometrics with the use of a photo or video to steal their identity (becoming a digital identity theft). Although it can be used to commit various activities related to money laundering, a facial spoofing attack is most used to commit a crime linked to bank identity fraud.

How facial spoofing is performed for banking identity fraud

Identity spoofing, especially in online environments, has increased significantly in recent years and is mostly used to create a bank account or to apply for a loan, in the case of companies in the financial sector.

The identity spoofing fraud to open an online bank account is carried out using face recognition spoofing mechanisms such as programmed videos, photos/selfies or even masks. However, these tricks should not pass the mandatory anti-spoofing face recognition or phishing detection checks in all processes of onboarding new users or signing contracts, loans, or contracting new services.

How to prevent a spoofing attack

When onboarding new customers, every company follows a process called KYC (Know Your Customer) to verify the identity of its customers and authenticate that they are who they claim to be.

When this is done face to face, an agent or salesperson checks the data on the identity document with the face of the person presenting it. However, when this process is taken to the online environment, a Digital Onboarding is carried out. Today, such processes are fully automated and comply with the strictest Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations. Therefore, a company or institution can perform the same processes online and remotely with the same security as in the physical environment.

If you want to learn more about eKYC procedures, download this guide.

ANTI-SPOOFING PROTECTION

Proof of life is part of the Identity Proofing process and serves to verify and authenticate a person’s identity. Nowadays, this process can be carried out in two ways:

  • Face-to-face proof of identity: By showing an identity document (ID card, passport, etc.).
  • Digital proof of life: Using an online identity verification process. This process is crucial for companies in the financial sector to avoid bank identity fraud.

Online proof of life through video streaming is the safest and most effective method to detect identity spoofing for different reasons:

SMILEID, ANTI-SPOOFING FACE RECOGNITION

Expert in video identification, identity verification authentication, and e-signatures solutions, Electronic IDentification’s SmileID solution is the most complete and advanced anti-spoofing technology on the market for detecting spoofing fraud and banking identity fraud.

Based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, SmileID bases its facial identification system on data obtained by streaming video identification, with VideoID, and integrates different anti-spoofing protection.

Once the previous biometric comparison or proof-of-life tests have been passed, this filter runs in real-time on all the video frames that VideoID analyses and ensures that the person in front of the camera is really who he/she claims to be and is in full capacity.

Request a free demo of SmileID’s Anti-Spoofing technolgy now!