Age Verification for E-commerce Platforms

A staggering 2.14 billion people are expected to shop online goods and services by the end of 2021. While it has brought new innovation to the table, age-exclusive e-commerce sites also create unforeseen challenges. A few examples of these digital products include alcohol, dating apps, e-cigarettes, and subscription of adult-themed online content. Merchants of these services need to make sure they are using proper ways and means of verifying consumer age, otherwise, they have to face serious consequences and penalties. ^[1]

Payment Cards

Today, children can easily bypass self-check and payment card authentication procedures required to buy online products. Since minors themselves aren’t eligible to purchase and consume these items, they use their parent’s credit cards to authenticate payments, and that too without their consent. Since children are not mature enough to know about an authentic platform, they often end up handing their details to a potential fraudster through an imposter website, which leads to a credit card or card-not-found fraud. 

Chargeback Fraud

On average, chargeback fraud costs will account for 25 billion US dollars by the year 2025, according to Precognitive. In the world of digital transactions, credits cards are common these days. Online scammers use them as a source to carry out chargeback fraud which results in a hefty loss to digital businesses. In this type of crime, the fraudster buys online products, uses them for some time and then claims a refund against them. The bank then requests the relevant service provider to issue a refund to the customer. ^[2]

A similar type of chargeback happens when parents claim their child did an online purchase without their consent. Not to be confused with a false claim fraud, this is a genuine reversal request, but it equally affects the business in terms of loss. Proper age verification checks at e-commerce platforms can prevent minors from buying age-exclusive products, and eventually reduce chargebacks for an enterprise.