Ping Identity Holding Corp., a provider of identity management services, Tuesday launched PingOne Verify, a new cloud service that businesses can use to more quickly verify customer identities for rapid account onboarding, authentication and fraud prevention.

The cloud-based service can be embedded into websites and mobile applications and uses facial recognition to confirm identities once customers provide a government-issued ID.

Verification of new online accounts is a burden on companies doing business online because fraud is so rampant. New account fraud accounted for $3.4 billion in losses in 2018, according to Javelin Strategy & Research, a division of Greenwich Associates LLC. Fraudsters typically impersonate people with good credit ratings to open accounts and borrow money using the falsified credentials, leaving lenders on the hook for losses.

Ping Identity’s service increases the certainty that online organizations are interacting with the right customers without requiring passwords and with what it said is a minimum of administrative overhead. Customers provide a government ID such as a driver’s license, passport or European ID card and the system then presents a video stream that guides them various facial gestures to improve recognition and detect falsified images called “deepfakes.”

This so-called “liveness detection” captures images in a continuous stream rather than a static image and ensures that the user is a live person who can follow instructions. The service also taps into external data services to validate IDs haven’t been tampered with.

The company said the service can also be used to streamline subsequent account creation or other events that require reverification without the need for a government ID.

Ping Identity is a player in the hot identity and access management market that Global Market Insight expects will double from $10 billion in 2018 to $20 billion in 2025. Other leading players include Microsoft Corp., Okta Inc., OneLogin Inc., Auth0 Inc. and ForgeRock Inc. The company went public in late 2019 and reported $243 million in revenue last year.

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