Document verification – A wall of defence against identity theft
When it comes to document and identity fraud, what’s at stake?
It turns out there’s a lot. One in every three adults in the United States has been a victim of identity theft. It also comes at a high price. Fraud costs the global economy $5 trillion each year.
You must ensure that bad actors do not gain access to your products and services as a business. However, you don’t want to put off genuine customers. People will be put off if your onboarding process is lengthy or inconvenient.
You must achieve the ideal balance. Your clients expect convenience and speed. As well as the security and scalability your business need. So, what can companies do to safeguard themselves and their clients?
Document verification’s advantages
You might be familiar with the document and ID verification process. Banks and other businesses have been doing this for decades. However, you may only be used to validating IDs in a physical setting. Customers will experience friction as a result of this, which will slow down the process and prevent your business from scaling.
You can remotely validate your customers’ IDs with a digital document verification solution. As part of a remote onboarding process, it’s a quick way to see if an ID is genuine. Your ID checks will scale and become more efficient as a result of this. It protects your company from fake IDs while also making your customers’ lives easier.
The issue is that many organisations lack the resources, expertise, or technology needed to perform advanced document verification. There are numerous types of document fraud, each of which necessitates a unique method of detection. It takes time and money to recognise and catch different types of fraud.
A comprehensive document verification system can aid in this situation.
Identifying the various types of document fraud
So, what are the advantages of using a document verification service?
Let’s start with an overview of the various types of document fraud.
Fraudulent Documents divide into three categories:
- Documents that have been altered: These are documents that have been altered by a fraudster from an original, authentic document.
- Documents that are illegitimate: these are wholly fake productions.
- Falsely presented documents: these documents may be genuine or original, but they do not belong to the person who is presenting them.
Each of these subcategories then contains its own set of forged documents. For example, fake documents and blank stolen documents are two different sorts of manipulated documents. You might be wondering if a fraudster could even get their hands on blank documents. It turns out that it is. Thieves got off with 3,000 blank passports and visas in 2008.
Counterfeit documents, compromised or sample documents, and fantasy or camouflage documents are the three types of illegitimate documents. The Republic of Texas is a country in the United States of America. Have you heard of it? We hadn’t either until it appeared on a forged document.
Finally, fraudulently obtained documents and impostor documents are two sorts of improperly reported documents. Without advanced identity verification technologies, this is also the most difficult sort of ID fraud to identify.
As you can see, things get complicated rapidly. Not only can fraudsters tamper with documents in a variety of ways, but there are also millions of fake IDs available from hundreds of various nations. Each one has a distinct appearance and level of security.
So, how do we go about doing this?
Detecting many sorts of ID fraud through document verification
Because each sort of ID fraud is unique, you’ll need a variety of strategies to capture as many as possible.
The best technique to spot updated papers, for example, is to look for data consistency. This includes double-checking that the document registration number, expiration date, date of birth, gender, and other encoded data are all present on the card in all sections.
Things get a little trickier when it comes to documents that have been misrepresented. The only way to fully counteract this form of scam is to verify proof of ownership. As a result, while document verification has its advantages, it will be less effective at detecting fraud when used alone. After all, it just serves to verify the authenticity of an ID. It is unable to confirm the identification of the person who is using that ID.
Using a combination of document verification and biometric verification
Comparing a digital image or video of the individual to the image on the ID card is the best way to detect fraud such as improperly portrayed documents. A document check combined with a facial check verifies the document’s authenticity and ties it to the person who presented it. We believe that this should become the industry standard for identity verification because it is one of the most effective methods for preventing most sorts of fraud. It can help tackle these frauds and make document verification smoother and safe.
