Identity fraud is a commonly used term for an ever-increasing crime that originated in the 1960s. There are improvements in the digital world with every passing second, and at the same time, there are new types of frauds as well. Lack of security measures in digital business platforms has given the chance to fraudsters.
Criminals have a common motive of stealing identities and manipulating systems for their personal benefit. In digital platforms, it’s easier for them to pretend to be another person because companies often do not implement verification measures. Now, document verification services have stepped in to provide businesses with the tools to prevent identity fraud and save valuable time.
Digital Platform Frauds
Precautionary measures due to the coronavirus pandemic have led businesses to send their employees home. Social distancing is ensured and lives are saved, but securing the online environment is equally important. Since interviews, meetings, and all other operations are now conducted through digital platforms, the risks of fraud have increased dramatically.
The workload is divided and the employees work well even from the comfortable environments of their homes, but when criminals get their hands on these online platforms using fake identities, the scenario completely changes. For this reason, document verification services are crucial in digital business platforms. When proper document checks are employed, chances of identity fraud can be significantly decreased.
The management of a business in digital platforms is never sure of the attendees being the real employees or fraudsters. The process of virtually onboarding new customers is especially risky because this is where fraudsters have the edge. Once they enter the system by showing fake documents or using other techniques, then the company can end up bankrupt.
Fake Documents
1. Illegal documents
There are some key characteristics in original government-issued identity documents, and illegal documents do not possess these. Fraudsters try to create copies of identity documents that can appear real in online live videos unless proper detection technology is used.
2. Tampered documents
Another way fraudsters use is to make minor changes or alterations in another person’s authentic documents. These are made in such a way that the manual verification procedures are often unable to catch them.
3. Stolen documents
When the criminal simply steals identity documents or information of someone else and uses that person’s name for criminal activity. The criminal’s intent, in this case, is to never be seen as himself.
Document Verification Services
There have been many instances of monetary losses due to identity fraud and the expected figures don’t provide any relief either. Technological advancements have empowered fraudsters and the crimes are becoming tougher to counter.
In many cases, the businesses that newly shift their operations to digital platforms don’t wish to spend money on security measures such as document verification services. However, this leads them to ultimately lose more money to criminal activities.
How did Document Verification Solutions work?
When implementing document verification services, businesses incorporate particular APIs into their web platforms or mobile applications. End users or customers of the business are required to use these platforms to upload their ID documents in scanned form (using OCR technology). The verification of the documents is then done by the software which uses AI to authenticate and verify the information on the document.
With the results of this authentication, the customers that are proved to be real users are then allowed to carry on with the onboarding process. On the other hand, those that do not get authenticated due to unmatched records or tampered documents are rejected. This is how document verification services ensure safety in onboarding and the prevention of fraud.
Document Authentication
When advanced techniques were not being used, document authentication was a process of manually checking documents just by looking at them. However, the use of technologies like AI and machine learning has made this process a very detailed one. The process seems very simple because everything is being done by the software, but in the backend, it’s actually quite complex.
Various algorithms are used to detect unique features of documents that are issued by the authorities. The previously processed and stored data helps these algorithms in differentiating between the real and the fake documents. Some characteristic features in government-issued documents are the use of special ink and rainbow patterns, as well as secure information stored in the MRZ (machine readable zone) code. These are detected using document verification services and any attempts by fraudsters to fake these characteristics can be detected.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, document verification services are crucial for secure digital platforms of banking and fintech companies. The technology used in these services allows them to be both time-efficient and easy to use. Additionally, the verification of documents prevents various types of fraud that can harm the company’s reputation.