In the US alone, consumers reported losing $8.8 billion in fraud schemes, a 30% increase from the year before. That’s the tip of the wider fraudulent iceberg, with fraud targeting the financial sector other industries incurring billions more in losses.

The trend is a global one, with nearly every survey and study finding a steady uptick in fraud in the past several years. The drivers behind this fraud surge are complex and varied, but one common factor is the ease with which bad actors can steal identities or create new ones.

As firms increasingly struggle to determine who is who, identity verification is becoming the critical connective tissue between businesses and consumers everywhere. It’s becoming table stakes in almost every industry, from financial services to employment to gaming and many others.

In this two-part series exploring the global identity crisis and the ID verification landscape, ACFCS speaks with Shane Oren, the Chief Revenue Officer with OCR Labs. In Part One, we explored the history of identity verification, real-world examples of ID verification gone wrong, and key risks and challenges.  

In Part II, we further explore the risks to identity verification posed by emerging technologies like generative AI. We also discuss what types of industries and companies actually need identity verification, strategies that companies are using to approach these identity challenges, and what you might need to consider when verifying your customer identities.