Payment providers combat online gaming industry age problems
BT and DataCash prevent underage gambling and identity fraud
Tuesday 29th March 2005
DataCash, the UK’s leading payment services provider has announced it has signed an agreement with BT to enable its customers to access BT’s identity verification service, URUThe URUTM service will help DataCash customers to detect underage gambling, potential fraudulent activities, and also prepare for new money laundering and gambling legislation.
The URUTM service works by asking a series of questions and checking the individual’s answers against national reference databases such as mortality, electricity, telephone and financial industry records and passport and driving license details. No personal data is disclosed by the reference databases: simply a ‘match’ or ‘no match’ report is returned.
By using URUTM, DataCash will be able to provide combined age, identity and fraud screening of credit cards and debit cards to all organisations using the company’s payment facilities. Gaming organisations will no longer rely solely on a customer’s debit or Solo card – some of which can be issued to children as young as 11 – as a means of proving identity and setting up an account. Because the URUTM service carries out these checks in real-time, legitimate customers will still be able to get online quickly.
Gavin Breeze, Business Development Director, DataCash, said: “Identity fraud related crimes constitute the UK’s fastest growing criminal activity and look set to cost the country a staggering £1.3 billion per annum. Because of the comprehensive online checks carried out via URUTM, this agreement will help to overcome the numerous loopholes found in current processes, which mainly rely on paper-based checks that can easily be forged.”
Paul Putland, URUTM product manager, BT said: “The online gaming industry has a duty to protect children and prevent them from gambling, just as a traditional casino does. They have to take all reasonable steps to ensure that if someone is underage they are unable to place bets. Linking the URUTM service with DataCash’s payment service makes it simple for online gaming sites to implement all the necessary checks and makes it a very straightforward process for the end user.”
