Companies often don’t understand the need for document verification training. Do you ever need to verify an Identity Document? Do you check for right to work, or right to rent? Perhaps you need to conduct KYC checks. Do you get confused by the different types of document you see? Our document experts can help you with this – and in order to do so, they too have to keep up to date.
Recently one of our checkers attended an online training seminar to enhance his knowledge, this is what he learnt…
The EU standard for identity cards which was initially agreed in 2017 will need to be implemented by member states by August 2021. This means identity cards issued after this date will have to be credit card sized and contain a biometric chip – no more paper Italian ID cards; no more ‘non-standard’ issues from France or Greece. Old style cards issued before this date will continue to be valid so, Brexit aside, we will still see them for a while yet.
The EU issued a new format visa vignette in 2019 and it has already been compromised, so a new version is on its way and it will contain a QR code which can be read by mobile phone! Whether this constitutes validation, or not, we will have to wait and see.
The US authorities have discovered that the forgers in China have access to the exact same machine that is used in America to make state driving licences and other credit card sized documents. There is every reason to believe these fraudsters are manufacturing UK and EU driving licences and ID cards. One company even boasts about their machinery and has an online video showing it in operation. As these documents are produced on the right equipment it is incredibly difficult to spot that they are fake. It is not clear of the Chinese Government sanction these forgers.
Face morphing technology is becoming a concern of the Dutch authorities. None of us look exactly like our identity document photo, and the older the document, the more difficult it gets to relate the photo in the document to the person using it. Criminals are exploiting this by creating morphed pictures to put into counterfeit documents which can then be used by several similar looking people.
We know the fraudsters continually evolve and use the technology that is available to them to create fake IDs. It is a constant battle of cat and mouse. We know how difficult this can be for our clients when verifying a document, after all it is our business! If you are finding this difficult too, contact us for training, document verification and solutions to help make validation easier.
