Does your business need to worry about document verification? If you work in finance, do business internationally, sell valuable goods and services, and more, the answer is an emphatic “yes.”
Document verification allows your customers to use personal documents to authenticate their identity when you do business. We’ve tried and true methods that are still being used, but today, a lot of this is happening over mobile, making a seamless and user-friendly experience a top priority.
Here are four methods to know when you’re considering reliable document verification.
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Bar Code Reading
Driver’s licenses, passports and other credentials often display barcodes. When credentials have been forged, these barcodes may look genuine enough, but reading them tells a different story.
Barcodes, either with or in lieu of MRZ, are found on ID documents worldwide. With IDs varying from country to country, people who do business with anyone, anywhere need to be prepared. Therefore, the question is, is your business able to read the barcode?
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Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
We think of paper documents as very easy to replicate. Indeed, even intermediate counterfeiters can produce plausible facsimiles with the right equipment and some concerted effort.
MICR and OCR are working together to combat this. MICR is an identification tactic that has been around for a long time, and is most recognizable as the character printed on the bottom of a check. To innovate and improve this technique, businesses will use OCR to compare the magnetic characters as they are captured and ensure accurate readings.
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Face recognition
In the mobile world, facial recognition is considered one of the most reliable new ways to verify someone’s identity. Companies like jumio.com are at the forefront of bringing this technology to companies of all sizes and industries.
Facial recognition is more than document verification – it proves to you that the person providing it is who they claim to be. Biometric authentication takes a photo of the user who has submitted the document and compares it – in the minutest and invisible detail – with the identification document that the photo displays.
Best of all, this high-powered technology is simpler than it sounds to execute and leaves customers with no pain.
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Machine Readable Zone (MRZ)
Many KTPs and passports contain what is known as an MRZ. Basic details on documents, from name and address to DOB and gender, are fairly easy for fraudsters to manipulate. MZR essentially repeats this information, so the scan can back up what’s printed on the document.
The average person can’t even detect MRZ, but third-party document verifiers know how important it is. Like that barcode, you have to be prepared to double check what the user claims.
You can be sure thieves have totally missed the days when identification verification involved calls, copies, and faxes. We used to sacrifice productivity and sales when spending time verifying someone’s documents.
Today, methods designed to know what your eyes can’t see are widely available to prevent fraud, save money, and build your reputation as a safe and reliable organization.
