BlockScore - The intelligent ID verification system

@ssnacks this is really awesome - I was just searching all over for KBA API yesterday. Fraud detection and identity verification is like what payments were like before Stripe came around - complicated, non transparent, and not built for developers. I see Blockscore doing what Stripe did for payment to fraud verification. Any chance you guys will release an API for credit scores or criminal background checks down the road?

Wow, this is really cool! What sorts of dbs/lists are you checking with?

I know @ssnacks and have met the other founders of BlockScore; they've got a great team and an awesome service. Haven't seen anything quite like it yet. I know fraud is a big problem for a lot of SaaS vendors, so I'm surprised this didn't exist before. I'm curious to hear how vendors on PH deal with this currently. P.S. Looking forward to listing you on Leanstack @ssnacks ;)

Thanks @yonasbe. The way most SaaS vendors deal with user fraud is putting obstacles in the signup process like phone, text, and email verifications, captchas and requiring payment cards. We not only verify that an identity is for a real, living person, but we also authenticate that the owner of the identity is the one who provided the information. We ask questions like "which of these people do you know?" and "which make of car did you own in 2009?" Some use BlockScore to comply with Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws. Some use BlockScore for payment fraud prevention. Crowdfunding sites are a good examples of KYC, AML and payment fraud uses for BlockScore. BlockScore has become popular in the sharing economy to help owners know who is using their home or car, and to prevent money laundering by fake listings or campaigns. Also, you need to make sure that any campaign creator or property owner you pay is a real person, not some fraudster; BlockScore makes that easy.

Thanks for sharing this :) I think this is a very promising idea because of the reasons about a growing "shared economy" like you mentioned. @ssnacks What is the security grade of your platform? And what is being transmitted, stored, etc? I am not familiar with how products/platforms have to comply when it comes to dealing with sensitive information.. maybe you can shed some light?

This looks awesome.

@narekk, currently you pass in full name, address, date of birth, and last four digits of the person's social security number. We store the information, encrypt the SSN, use standard transport security, test for vulnerabilities, keep the software up to date, etc. There are no good standards on how to store PII. PCI for credit cards is a guide we use as a reference but it does not translate cleanly. At least it gives some rough guides. Some customers were looking to use us as a vault for personally identifiable information (PII) which was a use we didn’t consider. It is similar to how you use tokenization for credit cards.

@timjahn, thanks! The sources are vast and varying. The basics are credit header files, marketing division files, motor vehicle records, passport offices, Social Security Death Master Files, OFAC lists, red flag lists, specially designated nationals, and others.

@datarade, thanks! Thanks for sending it along to that company you mentioned too.

Now there are quite a few different identity verification systems, because it is quite popular. I often see that these systems are used in carsharing for the company to verify the identity and check the documents of the client. These technologies are also offered by Kvalifika https://www.kvalifika.com/blog/What-is-AML-and-Why-is-it-important, so if you are looking for something similar for your business, then I advise you to check the site of this company.