Modern day technological advancements have majorly accounted for a drastic increase in identity frauds, money laundering and other crimes. Every single business sector has been adversely affected by the disruptive intervention of the criminals. This has particularly happened due to the lack of adequate implementation of the Identity verification service. Among all other business sectors, the gaming industry seemed to suffer the most as it experienced increased audience engagement during the covid pandemic. The criminals closely observed the trend and did not let the opportunity of intervening with their shady tactics go wasted.
Where the gaming industry boomed during the pandemic due to the dramatically increased audience engagement, it also suffered major losses because of the gaming scams. The local and global regulatory authorities soon took notice of the accelerated growth in gaming frauds and made it mandatory for the gaming websites to strictly comply with the biometric identity verification system.
Recognising the Need for Identity Verification in Gaming:
The gaming industry that was already thriving seemed to experience a major boom amidst the turbulence caused by the global pandemic. The reason being, audience’s sudden accelerated engagement to save themselves of the torturous confinement. As the industry thrived and provided more exciting online experiences than before, the criminals did not take long to detect the loopholes in the security systems. The absence of identity authentication led to the phishing, malware, credential stuffing and many other gaming frauds that deteriorated the player’s gaming experience.
As per a study the consumers were observed to be spending around $21.1 billion on online games, and how could such huge customer engagement not attract the fraudsters? Hence, as soon as the global authorities started receiving continuous fraud reports, they issued strict orders for KYC online identity verification that included the Know Your Player protocols for fraud prevention and risk assessment. These particular regulations form a protective layer around the gaming websites and deter any kind of fraudulent attempts. Therefore, ensuring that the players are who they claim to be, through detailed identity verification services.
The Rising Identity Theft Cases in Gaming:
Among other frauds, ID theft has been on the rise for a long time. It has only accelerated in the past few years due to major technological advancements that have eased identity manipulation. As per a study, identity thefts account for half of the detected fraud cases i.e. nearly 52%. The covid pandemic majorly accounts for this dramatic increase in identity theft cases. The players have reported falling prey to major phishing scams through which the fraudsters steal the login credentials of the users and direct them towards illegal activities. Moreover, the players have suffered from the malware scam where malicious software is injected into the devices through which sensitive information is extracted.
Three Ways to Build a Seamless Gaming Experience:
The dramatic increase in the id theft cases incurs adverse effects on the business operations as well as the brand equity. Hence, to save themselves of trouble, the gaming websites could adhere to the following three ways to build the customer acquisition and a seamless gaming experience.
- Layered Up Checks: For the purpose of adding confidence in the player’s identities, the Know Your Player protocols ensure that the gaming websites perform a two way factor authentication and restrain from getting criminals onboard. One process involves the kyc checks that make sure the player is actually who he claims to be and the second step validates that the payments checks made, link each individual to the appropriate card or bank account.
- Ensuring that the right checks are put in place: Intending to provide a smooth and seamless gaming experience, the gaming sector may have to comply with the increasing regulations in this regard. However, it is essential for these websites to fight synthetic identity frauds but keep their verification processes short and fast as lengthened processes damage customer experience and they move to other websites. One way to u[pdate the security methods with the trends is to replace the obsolete ones with the robust methods.
- Optimising Player Onboarding Across Multiple Channels: The gaming websites have a sign-up tolerance time of not more than four minutes and in order to prevent criminals from getting into the systems, they have to implement fast verification procedures that could authenticate the identity in a matter of seconds. Failing to do so, could lead to the website being handed over to the criminals. Hence, verified identities ensure authentic player onboarding by performing identity theft protection services.
