When running an online business, id
verification and id authentication are a must. Nowhere is this truer
than in online banking. With no
brick-and-mortar locations to speak of, online-only banks such as HSBC, ING
Direct and E*Trade take a greater risk when they accept applications. It’s no surprise
that their id verification and id authentication procedures are much more
thorough, specific, and time-consuming than your average online transaction.
These procedures, of course, are to make sure that
applicants are who they say they are. But as the article from The Consumerist demonstrates, an id verification and id authentication
solution is only as foolproof as its data provider.
According to author Phil Vilarreal, potential ING Direct
customer Rick attempted to open an online checking account when he found
himself confused during the id
authentication questionnaire. Rick’s testimony claims that he was asked
questions pertaining to a person with which he was “not familiar” and, because
his answers were incorrect, an ING Direct representative informed him he would
“never” be able to open an online checking account with ING.
While the reasons for the inaccurate questions are not
confirmed in Vilarreal’s article, comments from fellow Consumerists suggest
that the data provider may have confused him with someone else based on its
sources of data. Rick’s story is an excellent example of why any online
business needs to be aware of the accuracy of its data provider as well as the
security measures it has in place to protect itself from fraud.