Shell (02423) further enhances its leasing services: online contract signing with facial recognition functionality expanded to 77 cities to ensure signing security.

With the current online rental model becoming widespread, issues such as multiple rentals for one property, signing contracts under false names, and subletting with forged documents by sub-lessors have become rampant, causing concerns over the safety of online rental agreements to resurface. To address this pain point, recently, Beike (02423) has rolled out a facial recognition feature for online contract signing that covers 77 cities across the country, adding another layer of security lock for rental agreements through technological means. In traditional offline agreements, both parties usually verify their identities face-to-face, but online signing faces the challenge of "who exactly is on the other side of the phone." To this end, Beike has introduced a self-operation verification mechanism during the signing process. When users sign contracts online using their ID cards, the system will automatically verify whether the name on the contract, the ID number, and the facial recognition results match. If facial recognition fails multiple times, or if the user employs other documents such as passports or travel permits, the system will automatically switch to the four elements of bank card authentication process, ensuring that the signing action is carried out by the actual parties involved in the contract. This feature applies to various scenarios, including main contract signing, amendments, cancellations, and renewals. Although it adds about 5 to 15 seconds to the operation time, it effectively reduces the risks of unauthorized signing and proxy signing. Beike emphasizes that facial recognition primarily addresses the issue of Is the signer the actual person? and does not replace other risk control measures such as verifying property ownership, confirming rental authorization, and ensuring rental payment safety. However, as stated by a relevant product manager at Beike, "consumers do not need to become risk control experts; the platform will continuously build capabilities to preemptively address key risks as much as possible.