MasterCard will soon let you pay with a selfie, so make it good

Your selfies are about to become a valuable tool in the fight against credit card fraud.

MasterCard announced this week that it's officially rolling out a new "selfie pay" feature that allows cardholders to use a picture of their face or a fingerprint to verify their identity when making mobile online purchases.

Following successful pilot tests of the feature last fall, the update will become available through big banks in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and some European countries in the coming months as the company looks for new ways to cut down on identity theft and credit card fraud.

The feature will require a separate app that scans biometric data from the photo and fingerprint every time you want to buy something online. Because it takes into account  physical depth and requires you to blink each time you use it, the app won't be fooled by a previously taken photo or video, the company says.

MasterCard is also now exploring the idea of monitoring your heartbeat or scanning the iris of your eye as a means of identity verification.

With credit card fraud rates on the rise, payment companies are looking for more secure ways to confirm your identity than simple passcodes or PIN numbers. 

 Days earlier, British bank HSBC rolled out new protections for its customers that let them confirm their identity with a voice command or fingerprint.

Most major credit card companies have also largely switched their customers over to chip-based cards, which generate unique codes for each transaction and are said to be less susceptible to fraud than traditional cards.

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