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Zumigo introduced a merchant payments validation service based on the real-time location of a customer’s mobile phone, as well as a service to verify consumers’ identity and credit card credentials during online purchases.
This new functionality of the company’s Assure Payments mobile solution is designed to provide merchants with an additional layer of protection from thieves using stolen credit card credentials.
By verifying transaction information supplied by a consumer, such as name, address and mobile number, merchants will be able to prevent fraudulent purchases before they happen.
The solution verifies the purchaser’s identity against mobile billing records delivered through Zumigo’s partnership with mobile operators and Equifax.
This verification process includes matching the credit card ownership details against the owner of the mobile device identified to the shopping cart.
“Primary security concerns businesses have about mobile payment security is prevention of stolen credentials being used for purchases, just like any online purchase, and authenticating an individual who claims an identity,” Chirag Bakshi, founder and CEO of Zumigo, told eWEEK. “Mobile technology allows the business to seamlessly identify the owner of the phone and the identity of the device along with facilitating faster and easy purchases on the mobile phone, thus making it more secure than an online purchase on the computer, laptop or tablet.”
The cloud-based services are enabled with application programming interface (API) integrations into a merchants’ existing shopping cart to verify identity and location of a user’s mobile device to prevent fraudulent transactions.
Solutions can be deployed to a traditional website or mobile app, and beyond consumer consent to verify data, there are no extra steps, such as PINs to enter.
Instead, Zumigo authorizes transactions through customer location and identifies the right customer with the right device, using location and network data across all global networks and mobile devices.
In addition, Zumigo can identify the real-time location of the mobile phone to be compared against the IP address, as well as the shipping and billing address of the purchaser.
When all of these relevant data points match, merchants will be aware of the lower-risk transaction or else will be able to identify higher-risk ones for additional scrutiny or denial.
Assure Payments also serves another mobile commerce purpose, as with just a few pieces of identifying data, the phone owner’s name, address and payment credentials can be loaded into the merchant’s shopping cart.
“These tools have to work seamlessly behind the scenes without any change in consumer behavior and yet be very effective,” Bakshi said. “With the emergence of mobile networks and mobile phones we have been able to create new innovative fraud detection mechanisms that leverage the fact that everyone owns a mobile phone, which is always on them. Zumigo’s tools do not require consumer interaction, such as entering a PIN, which is sent via SMS to the consumer’s mobile phone and is susceptible to fraud as well.”