• Dartanyon A. Williams, Founder at DuckPond Technologies, Inc


• 14.01.2022 11:10 am

An entrepreneur and author, Dartanyon A. Williams founded DuckPond Technologies in 2019 to create better protections against consumer and business fraud. 

Q: You founded the company DuckPond Technologies, Inc,  which is aimed at combating forms of consumer and business fraud with disruptive technologies. What inspired you to tackle consumer protections?

Dartanyon A. Williams: I wanted to improve the quality of life for my children, my family and my community. I founded DuckPond Technologies to develop my ideas for combating fraud more intelligently, and to leverage the incredible technology that now exists to try and prevent fraudulent transactions before they happen.

Q: DuckPond Technologies is also developing some products outside of consumer protections, like VirtuVoter and a consumer-facing eSports game called HipHop Sportz. Can you tell us more about these products?

Dartanyon A. Williams: Absolutely. We have several projects going that I’m really excited about, and that I think are especially promising.

HipHop Golf is the first of about 10 mobile sports games that we’re developing. We’re calling the series HipHop Sportz and they bring sports to the streets with creative and colorful environments all over the world. The games will have in-app purchases and advertising opportunities, like many of the successful mobile games out there right now. We’re targeting a 3-Phase release, starting in late 2022.

As for VirtuVoter, I can’t say too much about that yet, but the goal is to create a more secure voting experience that uses the latest biometric and A-Symmetry technology to allow for end-to-end encryption of the voting transactions. Given the continued national conversation about election integrity and security, I see the potential for high demand for this particular product.

Q: As you point out in your book, identity theft has been the fastest-growing crime in the US for a long time. Do you think this will continue? What do you think consumer protections will look like 10 years from now?

Dartanyon A. Williams: That all depends on how seriously legislators take this epidemic and to what end they tackle it head on. The reality is that we’re so far behind in our regulation of identity theft. It’s been the fastest-growing crime in America for decades, yet we’re still so far behind.

This is a very difficult crime to pursue after the fact. Reducing identity theft is all about pro- activity and prevention via consumer education, but the problem is that most people just don’t know what measures to take.

For example, most people can immediately prevent the vast majority of identity thefts just by contacting one of the major credit bureaus, like Equifax, Experian or Transunion, and asking them to put a credit freeze or fraud alert in your consumer credit profile. That means any creditor or inquirer would need to verify your identity before allowing access to your existing account or issuing new credit.

As I’ve said many times before, the instant credit process is a big source of the problem. If we could eradicate or at least reduce it, we would see a major reduction in identity theft. The only problem is the political will and willingness to do it.

Q: In your book, “The Master Identity Thief,” you outline many legislative proposals for identity theft and other issues. What are some key examples of legislation that you think could substantially improve consumer protections for identity theft?

Dartanyon A. Williams: Yes! Thanks for bringing that up! I spent a lot of time formulating those ideas, and I think they could make a big impact. I have written 60 legislative proposals in the appendices of my book that address those issues.

Let’s keep using the instant credit market as an example. This market is all about instant gratification. It’s very often used to exploit people through identity theft. If we make the instant credit market more verifiable, we can drastically reduce the amount of thefts that occur this way.

That’s how I made a million dollars when I was 19 years old, and those vulnerabilities still exist today

Additionally, since “Chip Technology” for payment cards came by way of a Presidential Executive Order per President Barack Obama in 2014, it would seem common sense to federally mandate “Mobile Point of Sale Technology,” thereby significantly decreasing the risk of payment card fraud.

Q: You ran for a Louisiana Congressional seat in 2020. Are you still interested in politics? What are the issues in your community you would like to address?

Dartanyon A. Williams: I’m definitely still interested in fostering positive change in my community, but I’m not sure that public office is the right way for me to do it.

I’m starting by focusing on improving diversity, inclusion and equity in the technology industry right here in Baton Rouge and Louisiana. If you want to change things, you have to start local. And financial crimes aren’t my only concerns.

I also want to bring some focus to the big problems we often ignore, like childhood poverty, homelessness, mental health issues, human trafficking and criminal justice reform. I’d also like to create a scholarship for young entrepreneurs that foreshadows or follows my next project, as these are the innovators that I believe will be most responsible for making positive changes.