LexisNexis Bolsters Fraud Detection With IDVerse Acquisition

LexisNexis Risk Solutions finalized its acquisition of document authentication and fraud detection firm IDVerse.

The deal will ultimately allow LexisNexis to offer “more robust risk insights” to help clients protect their customers, according to a Wednesday (Feb. 19) press release. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Anti-fraud capabilities need to advance as fast or faster than fraudsters innovate their tactics,” Rick Trainor, CEO of business services at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, said in the release. “AI-powered solutions are critical in defending against fraud, particularly AI-generated fraud such as deepfakes. IDVerse’s accelerated innovation in this field is impressive, and I’m eager to see how our complementary cutting-edge solutions will combine to take our anti-fraud capabilities to new levels.”

IDVerse, founded in Australia and launched commercially in 2018, uses artificial intelligence to prevent fraud and deepfakes, per the release.

The company’s technology verifies the authenticity of identity documents and, with consumer permission, matches the consumer’s face to the photo on a document via “biometric algorithms for identity verification and liveness detection to detect a fraudulent submission,” the release said.

The acquisition came as scammers increasingly use deepfake technology to target their victims. The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an alert in November to help financial institutions spot scams using deepfake media created using generative AI.

“Vigilance by financial institutions to the use of deepfakes, and reporting of related suspicious activity, will help safeguard the U.S. financial system and protect innocent Americans from the abuse of these tools,” said FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki at the time.

Meanwhile, the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Money Mobility Tracker®: Protecting Accelerated Disbursements From Fraud” found that 71% of financial institutions use AI and machine learning to combat fraud.

While 48% of fraud prevention technologies are developed in-house, only 14% of financial institutions can build AI and machine learning solutions internally, PYMNTS reported in December. As a result, it’s expected that 70% of financial institutions will rely on third-party vendors to provide AI-driven fraud detection and prevention tools this year.