Hoping to verify actual account holders by their keystroke rhythms and thus cut down on the prospect of payment and other Internet account fraud, Electracash has licensed TouchCredit's BioApp technology for real-time account holder verification, the two companies announced June 8.
The deal lets Electracash offer the TouchCredit verification as part of its online check processing system and is available immediately, to over five hundred Electracash merchant customers servicing "several thousand Websites." It's also included in Electracash's basic ACH payment service for new merchants, the companies said.
The new deal means Electracash merchants will know the actual account holder is there when the payment is being made, with consumers verifying their presence during a transaction based on their unique keystroke rhythms. The program also allows for standard microphones to be used for voice verification, or for finger-scanning software applications, the companies said.
"After reviewing many authentication and verification technologies, we found that TouchCredit is the most comprehensive solution with usability not found elsewhere," said Electracash chief executive officer Lee Falls in a statement. "TouchCredit's technology allows anyone with a computer to enjoy the added security of biometric verification, offering the merchant protection against fraud while protecting the consumer's identity. It was important to us that we offer a verification solution for merchants that anyone with a computer can use, not just those with finger-scan devices."
TouchCredit said they were enthusiastic about the deal, too. "They serve hundreds of merchants, are growing rapidly, and are committed to helping merchants reduce fraudulent transactions, while simplifying the online check payment process," said TouchCredit founder James Uberti of Electracash. "By offering merchants an automatic customer identification solution along with their ACH payment service, Electracash is helping to ensure that the person on the other end of the transaction is who they claim to be."
Meridian Research has estimated about ten percent of all Internet transactions are fraudulent, compared to one percent of the brick-and-mortar transactions, while Jupiter Media has reported consumers think their credit cards are 12 times more likely to be defrauded in cyberspace.
