ID document verification confirms the legitimacy of an identity document such as a passport, a national identity card or a driving licence. By carrying out a series of automatic or manual checks the authenticity of the relevant document is verified. In fact, this verification includes checking the documents’ integrated security features. For maximum efficiency, identity documents should be checked by professionals trained in forgery detection.
When a document is submitted to a verification service, an automatic processing chain is executed. This is how our identity document checker works.
The document type may be recognized automatically. Otherwise, it must be indicated to the service before the verification begins.
The informations on the document holder and the document itself are extracted from the identity document.
This is the verification step itself during which we check the security features of the document.
A verification report is produced. The results of the analysis are sent back to the client in less than 12 seconds.
While most online businesses are not legally required to check the identity of their customers, they may need to do so all the same to combat fraud more effectively.
Some sectors are constrained by regulations. Such as financial services, online gambling or any activity that is legally required to check the age of its customers.
Identity document checker can confirm details that are essential to comply with regulations. Such as KYC (Know Your Customer), AML (Anti-Money Laundering), PEP (Politically Exposed Person) and CFT (Countering the Financing of Terrorism) requirements.
Many documents can be used to prove a customer’s identity. Such as an identity card, citizenship card, passport, visa, residence permit, driving license or even professional cards such as flight attendants’ cards.
In general, these are documents issued by a trusted authority. Generally, a government or a recognized international organisation, though the task can indeed be delegated.
They contain the identity of the holder : full name, date of birth, possibly parentage, address, etc. And also biometric information (photo, fingerprints etc.) to link the identity to the person.
An identity document is issued following a carefully designed and checked process. Indeed, it aims to ensure that the document is produced on behalf of the right person and given to the right person.
This process is naturally subject to attacks by criminals who attempt to use fraud. Their purpose is to obtain identity documents containing their biometric characteristics associated with an invented identity or, even more importantly, the identity of an existing person (identity theft).
Commonly used identity documents also vary from one country to another. In some countries, possession of an identity document (passport or identity card) is mandatory, while in others it is not. Each country’s situation displays wide contrasts even within Europe.
There are many techniques for securing identity documents. And it is not unusual for a single document to implement many features to discourage or hinder criminal activity. That is why we will just present here the main security features.
Found on many documents, the MRZ represents the strip of one to three lines of characters. Chevrons are used to fill in the blank spaces. The strip contains the document information in coded form. This includes the holder’s identity, date of birth, document expiry date, document number, etc. It also has the advantage of containing several checksums that can provide additional useful checks.
Whether it is fluorescent, fugitive, iridescent, metallic, optically variable, photochromic, penetrating or thermochromic, ink plays a very important role in securing an identity document.
The use of special fonts that cannot be found in the public domain is an additional security feature.
Bar codes have been used on identity documents for several years. First one-dimensional, they are now two-dimensional, often in PDF417 format. The 2D-DOC code invented by ARIADNEXT has been presented to the ICAO and studies are being carried out on its adoption for some identity documents.
The methods used to print the document background or personalise the document are important security features. Even though it is often difficult to verify them with the naked eye : offset, intaglio printing, typography, screen printing for the background, inkjet or laser printing, or thermal transfer for personalisation.
Printing a text extremely small, difficult to reproduce precisely enough with a traditional printer. It is a fairly effective security feature.
Embedded into the body of a polycarbonate card or the cover of a passport, an electronic chip adds a high level of security to the document. It also provides extra features such as the possibility of checking the holder’s fingerprints.
This category includes patterns sensitive to ultraviolet light, patterns that disappear under infrared light, holograms, fluorescent plates, etc.
Depending on the quality of the images uploaded for analysis, the IDCheck.io service uses algorithms that can verify the most relevant security features.