Abstract: The disclosure is directed to a continuously and automatically updated authentication mechanism for authentication, in real-time, the processing of transactions at point of sales devices based on corresponding target-specific identifiers. In one aspect, a processing server includes one or more memories having computer-readable instructions stored therein, and one or more processors. The one or more processors are configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to receive a request for processing a transaction; identify a merchant-specific identifier for a merchant associated with the transaction; determine, in real-time and using a machine trained model, whether the merchant-specific identifier is a valid merchant-specific identifier or not; and process the transaction based on whether the machine trained model indicates that the merchant-specific identifier is valid or not.