Identity Verification, KYC, and Watchlist Screening

FraudEG’s identity verification suite lets you confirm that users are who they say they are — at onboarding, during high-risk actions, and whenever your compliance program requires re-verification. The suite covers Know Your Customer (KYC) for individuals, Know Your Business (KYB) for companies, government document verification, liveness checks to prevent spoofing, and real-time watchlist screening against global sanctions, politically exposed persons (PEP), and adverse media databases. All verification types share the same API surface and webhook callback pattern.

What Identity Verification Covers

Verification Type	Description
KYC (individual)	Verify name, date of birth, address, and national ID number against authoritative data sources.
KYB (business)	Verify business registration, UBO (ultimate beneficial ownership), and directors.
Document verification	Authenticate passports, driver’s licenses, and national ID cards using AI document analysis.
Liveness check	Confirm the person submitting the document is physically present using biometric liveness detection.
Watchlist screening	Screen identities against OFAC, EU, UN sanctions lists, PEP registries, and adverse media sources.

When to Verify

User onboarding — verify identity before granting account access, especially for regulated financial products.
Step-up challenge — trigger re-verification when a transaction score exceeds your high-risk threshold or a behavioral_anomaly signal is present.
Account changes — re-verify when a user updates their email address, phone number, bank account, or shipping address.
Periodic refresh — re-screen existing users against updated watchlists on a scheduled cadence to maintain ongoing compliance.

The Verification Flow

Submit the user’s identity data to FraudEG, which checks it against data sources and returns one of four statuses:

You submit identity data via POST /v1/identity/verify.
FraudEG checks the data against government registries, credit bureau records, document authentication services, and watchlist databases.
FraudEG returns a status field — verified, pending, failed, or flagged — along with a verification_id you store on your user record.

Submitting an Identity Verification

curl -X POST https://api.fraudeg.com/v1/identity/verify \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer feg_live_sk_xxxxxxxxxxxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "user_id": "usr_8f3k2p",
    "type": "kyc",
    "name": {
      "first": "Jamie",
      "last": "Rivera"
    },
    "date_of_birth": "1988-04-23",
    "address": {
      "line1": "742 Evergreen Terrace",
      "city": "Springfield",
      "state": "IL",
      "postal_code": "62704",
      "country": "US"
    },
    "document": {
      "type": "drivers_license",
      "number": "D123-4567-8901",
      "issuing_state": "IL",
      "expiry_date": "2028-04-22"
    }
  }'

Verification Statuses

Status	Meaning	Recommended Action
`verified`	Identity confirmed against data sources.	Proceed normally. Store the `verification_id` on the user record.
`pending`	Verification requires additional processing (e.g., document review).	Wait for the async result delivered via webhook. Do not block the user yet.
`failed`	Identity could not be confirmed — data mismatch or document invalid.	Block the action or escalate to manual review. Request the user to resubmit.
`flagged`	Identity matched against a watchlist (sanctions, PEP, or adverse media).	Immediately escalate to your compliance team. Do not proceed with onboarding.

For pending verifications, FraudEG sends the final result to your webhook endpoint configured in Platform → Webhooks. Listen for the identity.verification.completed event, which contains the resolved status and full verification detail. Configure a fallback timeout in your application in case the webhook is delayed.

Watchlist Screening

Screen a user or business entity against global sanctions and PEP lists at any time using the watchlist endpoint. This is separate from the verification flow and can be run independently.

curl -X GET "https://api.fraudeg.com/v1/identity/watchlist?user_id=usr_8f3k2p&name=Jamie+Rivera&country=US" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer feg_live_sk_xxxxxxxxxxxx"

FraudEG screens against:

OFAC SDN (U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control Specially Designated Nationals)
EU Consolidated Sanctions List
UN Security Council Sanctions
PEP registries — global and country-specific
Adverse media — negative news signals from monitored publications

Sample Verified Response

{
  "verification_id": "ver_9Xp2mTkL5rNq",
  "user_id": "usr_8f3k2p",
  "type": "kyc",
  "status": "verified",
  "score": 97,
  "checks": {
    "name_match": "pass",
    "dob_match": "pass",
    "address_match": "pass",
    "document_authentic": "pass",
    "watchlist_clear": true
  },
  "created_at": "2024-11-14T10:05:33Z",
  "completed_at": "2024-11-14T10:05:34Z"
}

Continue Learning

KYC Onboarding Guide

Step-by-step guide to integrating KYC verification into your user onboarding flow.

Identity Verify API Reference

Full parameter reference, response schema, and error codes for the identity verification endpoint.

Get Started

Core Concepts

Guides

Platform

Identity Verification, KYC, and Watchlist Screening

What Identity Verification Covers

When to Verify

The Verification Flow

Submitting an Identity Verification

Verification Statuses

Watchlist Screening

Sample Verified Response

Continue Learning

KYC Onboarding Guide

Identity Verify API Reference

​What Identity Verification Covers

​When to Verify

​The Verification Flow

​Submitting an Identity Verification

​Verification Statuses

​Watchlist Screening

​Sample Verified Response

​Continue Learning

KYC Onboarding Guide

Identity Verify API Reference

What Identity Verification Covers

When to Verify

The Verification Flow

Submitting an Identity Verification

Verification Statuses

Watchlist Screening

Sample Verified Response

Continue Learning