Confronted by escalating levels of fraudulent activity within its platform, Getaround’s integrity faced significant threats. Pierre Béret, VP Customer Operations & Risk, Getaround, shares how the partnership with Onfido has revolutionised its fraud detection, enhancing security without compromising user experience. The solution not only safeguards the platform but also sets new industry standards for safe and secure carsharing operations.
Founded in 2009, Getaround has emerged as a leading carsharing platform in Europe, spanning over 1,000 towns and cities across eight countries. The platform offers on-demand mobility solutions, aiming to revolutionise car usage by making sharing more efficient than owning. This reduces the number of vehicles on the road as well as aligns with the company’s commitment to promoting sustainable forms of mobility.
The challenge
Getaround confronted a significant challenge as users with flagged fraudulent activities sometimes managed to re-join the platform under new identities, evading existing alert systems. This posed a threat to the platform’s integrity and necessitated a robust solution to enhance fraud detection.
The solution
Using Onfido’s game-changing ‘Known Faces’ solution, Getaround was able to identify users with previous fraudulent flags. This innovative feature allowed the platform to discern between legitimate users with modified details and those attempting to return with entirely new identities. Seamless integration of Onfido’s Document Check and Motion solutions allowed for faster and more secure user verification and further fortified the entire verification process.
The results
The integration of Onfido into Getaround’s workflows was swift, requiring only one week within the existing setup. The impact was immediate, with fraudulent users being detected more efficiently.
- Enhanced fraud detection: Onfido’s known faces feature resulted in 1% of profile verifications triggering alerts, significantly improving the identification of potential fraudulent activity.
- Effective restriction implementation: A substantial 16.5% of these alerts led to restrictions, showcasing the precision and efficacy of Onfido’s fraud prevention measures.
Onfido’s contribution extended beyond fraud prevention, significantly enhancing Getaround’s reputation as a reliable player in the carsharing market.
The heightened security measures not only safeguards the platform but also attracts new customers who prioritise safety. Looking forward, Getaround aims to leverage this newfound trust to attract more vehicle owners and users, solidifying its position as a leading digital carsharing service.
We asked Pierre Béret, VP Customer Operations & Risk, Getaround, further questions to find out more about the project.
Why was fraud detection the main obstacle for Getaround, and what factors led to choosing Onfido?
Fraud is a game of cat and mouse, and as we’ve expanded our carsharing platform into eight countries and over 1,000 towns and cities, we needed a best-in-class solution to keep our users, vehicles and services safe while keeping bad actors out.
We had noticed that some users with flagged fraudulent activities were able to re-join our platform under new identities, bypassing existing alert systems. This posed a threat to our platform’s integrity and could compromise our services, so we needed a robust identity verification solution that was able to detect and filter out these attacks, without impacting the experience of legitimate users.
Crucially, we did not want to impact the user experience of legitimate users that were onboarding to our platform with modified details. Onfido’s innovative ‘Face Found’ solution can discern between legitimate users and fraudsters attempting to return with new identities. Its combination of document and AI-powered biometric checks has accelerated our user onboarding times and created a more secure, trusted process.
Explain the implementation process of Onfido’s ‘Face Found’ solution – were there any technical challenges identified, and how were they overcome?
Implementing Onfido’s ‘Known Faces’ feature for a ‘Face Found’ solution was a quick and smooth experience for us and our engineering team. The API documentation provided clear guidance and facilitated a straightforward integration process which was important for us as we wanted to get our new verification process up and running as quickly as possible.
Operationally, incorporating the solution into our existing model was easy; we simply added a new workflow to manage alerts so we could make informed decisions and take swift actions based on the insights available to us.
As the implementation occurred within a week, what were your expectations during this initial period and how did Onfido meet them?
Fraud does not stop just because you’re expanding your identity verification solutions, and so during the initial week of implementation, we could not afford any downtime. Our primary goal was to ensure that our production processes remained uninterrupted while ensuring we could catch any fraudsters in our existing database from day one.
Onfido surpassed our expectations by smoothly integrating its solution while enabling us to maintain business continuity. As a result, we were able to swiftly identify and address any fraudulent activity, enabling us to achieve our objectives during a critical period.
How has Onfido empowered internal stakeholders at Getaround with a new reliable service, and how will this benefit future organisation endeavours?
Onfido has provided us with a new reliable, sophisticated service that automates identity verification. This means the vast majority of onboarding attempts can be checked and cleared in real-time, with any more sensitive or suspicious cases being passed over to our team for manual checks. This process has streamlined how we handle fraud and freed up resources, so our team has more time to review the alerts sent to us and make informed decisions about onboarding.
Onfido has enabled us to enhance our fraud detection capabilities and mitigate risks more effectively. This not only ensures a safer environment for our users but enables us to scale our operations as we grow as a business.
Were there any issues with security regulations from regional compliance across Europe? How were these managed?
As an international service across Europe and the US, we need to meet various local regulatory requirements, such as KYC, including age verification, licence type and driver classification. Onfido’s library of global data sources and verification solutions means we can customise verification journeys to match local requirements, maintaining the same seamless onboarding process in each country.
How will the achievement of Getaround’s security objectives push identity verification in the industry further to ensure safe and secure operations?
The carsharing and hiring market is growing fast and as the world looks towards convenient and sustainable mobility solutions, our priority is to maintain the safety of our users. As industries soar in popularity, bad actors closely follow – and in our market, fraudsters are seeking to gain illicit access and defraud platforms.
Through our partnership with Onfido, we are setting a new standard for identity verification and a blueprint for others in the industry to follow. Together, we are fostering a commitment to upholding the highest standards of security to significantly mitigate the risk of identity fraud and prevent bad actors undermining trust between our platform and our users.
In leading the way and implementing robust identity verification solutions, we hope to create a safe and secure operational environment for our stakeholders, and ultimately strengthen trust in the future of car hire and sharing.
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