ID.me Enables States to Verify Over 200,000 Identities and Unlock $1.2B in Unemployment Claims
Federally Certified Identity Provider Helps Reduce Fraud and Accelerate Payments to Families in Need
McLean, Va., October 22, 2020 – ID.me, a federally certified identity verification provider, announced that it has been able to verify the identities of over 200,000 citizens who filed claims for unemployment benefits over the past several months. As a result, an estimated $1.2 billion in claims have been distributed to the citizens of seven states, including four of the most highly populated in the nation. The customers claimed a variety of unemployment benefits from state insurance plans as well as federal stimulus programs under the CARES Act.
Traditional identity proofing approaches rely upon verifying people based on the data in credit files. Record checking along with question and answer-based approaches fail at least 30% of users – especially young adults, recent immigrants, and lower-income families that have limited information in public records. Using demographic data alone to perform identity verification also results in massive fraud for high-risk applications as the social security numbers and personal details of hundreds of millions of Americans are available for sale on the dark web.
ID.me is designed to support a diverse range of demographics ensuring that No Identity Left Behind. Most users can verify their identity in just a few minutes using a web-based, self-service application. Those that are not successful with the self-service model can complete the process via a live video conference session. Users can present over 30 different types of documents to prove their identity, ranging from a driver’s license to a permanent resident card. ID.me’s support team is online 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic there has been a surge of unemployment in every state. Many of these claims are from workers in hard-hit industries such as travel, entertainment, and retail. However, millions of fraudulent claims representing billions of dollars have also been filed by members of organized crime groups. For understaffed state unemployment agencies, the substantial number of fraudulent claims has made a difficult situation virtually impossible.
“If the past six months have taught us anything, it is that the status quo model for online identity verification doesn’t work. From an inclusion and access standpoint, less affluent Americans are often unable to prove their identity online. And, fraudsters who use breached personal data are able to walk away with millions,” said Blake Hall, CEO and Founder of ID.me. “With so many people struggling to pay bills and put food on the table, it is time for a new and inclusive approach. Our identity verification platform and network of tens of millions of pre-verified ID.me users is already helping states to scale their identity verification program to process tens of thousands of claims per day while blocking the vast majority of fraud.”
Over 28 million people have ID.me accounts, including 10% of the US adult population, with 60,000 new users joining every day. Once a user creates an ID.me account, they can apply for unemployment benefits or also access hundreds of government and business websites across the web. ID.me provides consumers with a trusted and portable digital login, freeing them from having to verify their identity and create a password for each new application they want to access.
To perform identity verification for unemployment applicants, ID.me follows guidelines published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST SP 800-63). First successfully deployed at the US Department of Veterans Affairs in 20181, ID.me is used by federal agencies such as Social Security and Treasury as well as the states of Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, California, and Pennsylvania.
About ID.me
ID.me simplifies how individuals prove and share their identity online. Our next-generation identity platform provides identity proofing, authentication, and group affiliation verification for organizations across sectors. ID.me’s technology meets the highest federal standards for online identity proofing, authentication, KYC, and AML requirements and is approved as a NIST 800-63-3 IAL2 / AAL2 conformant credential service provider by the Kantara Initiative. More than 28 million users and over 450 organizations use ID.me to verify identity, including healthcare organizations, federal and state government agencies, financial institutions, retailers, and nonprofits. To learn more about ID.me and its secure identity verification platform, visit https://www.ID.me/ and follow on Twitter @IDme.
1 – For more information about ID.me’s project at the US Department of Veterans Affairs visit: https://www.fedscoop.com/id-brings-virtual-identity-proofing-va/
Media Contact on Behalf of ID.me
Edward Fernandez
Rafetto Herman Strategic Communications
ID.mePR@rhstrategic.com
415-286-5458
