Update: Identity Verification
We were recently notified by a number of sources that one of the artists on MakersPlace was not authentic.
We take identity verification very seriously here at MakersPlace. We started MakersPlace to provide a platform that helps protect digital artists and a major part of that involves ensuring that we’re only selling authentic artworks. In order to achieve this, every artist that joins MakersPlace must go through a multi-step identity verification process which involves providing at least 2 forms of identity and in many cases, a government issued ID. It’s an arduous but necessary process.
When we heard of this particular incident, we investigated the matter immediately and launched a secondary identity verification process. The artist in question was Nadiia Forkosh.
After careful review, we’re happy to say that we were able to verify that the account was in fact authentic. Our secondary review included:
- A secondary form of online identity, in this case through the artist’s Shutterstock account.
- A secondary form of government issued ID.
- A video interview.
Thank you Nadiia for your patience throughout this process, we encourage you to check out her amazing artworks!
Learnings
Having gone through this process, we’re happy to have uncovered a number of improvements to our identity verification process which will help us gain a higher degree of confidence earlier and faster. Here are the things we’ll be building in the coming months:
- Automated anomaly detection. In this case we noticed a difference in the name of the artist during their original government ID verification, which should have raised questions. We will be implementing a system to automatically detect and alert us of these anomalies.
- Improved automation of public reverse image look-ups. When we require additional confidence in the authenticity of an artwork, we perform a reverse image look-up to see if there are other uses of an artwork. We will be investing in making this easier to do in our process.
- Multi-verification. We will be requiring a multi-step review of identity information going forward.
We understand that the identity verification process can take a long time for newer artists, I hope this provides a glimpse into the reasoning behind this important step.
