Companies must identify authentic users to be on board. Digital technology encouraged crooks to reach the profession regarding fake documents used in place of legal documents. Moreover, fake documents seem real as minor variations often remain unidentified. In 2022, the United States reported 1802 cybercrime cases.
Companies are required to use advanced technology to verify the documents. The document verification process filters the variation and confirms the legitimacy. A rapid increase in the fraud case ratio has been seen in the last few years. Identity documents are verified to mitigate the fraud risk.
Why do Companies Use the Document Verification Process?
Organizations are required to verify the identity of clients. Individuals provide documents such as identity cards, driving licenses, passports, and educational certificates. The verification process ensures the legitimacy of the data provided. Moreover, documents can be verified manually or digitally. However, the advanced technology used for online document verification is encouraged. Companies can onboard authentic customers after completing the verification process. Businesses overcome the risk of fraud. Additionally, organizations have multilayered security using advanced technology-based document verification.
Automated Verification System Vs Manual
Documents are collected to verify a piece of certain information. For example to know whether the name spell of the customer is the same on different documents or not. In a manual process, the employee is directly involved in verification, but in automated procedures, AI-based models identify variations. However, automated verification processes are encouraged for being quick and smart. Additionally, document scan is difficult to detect with the human eye.
How to Verify Documents Online?
Automated solutions are highly effective while onboarding a client. A customer provides scanned copies of documents. It is mainly used to verify documents online. It works as follows.
- Document Collection
It is the first step in the verification procedure, documents are collected from the user. It commonly involves a captured photo of a specific document. Organizations hold requirements for documents and images such as
- Is it a picture of the required document or not?
- Is the photo clear and of high enough quality?
- Does the photo capture the entire document, or is it a partial photo?
- Are there any clear signs that the document has been tampered with?
- Does the document contain the necessary information for verification?
2. Data Extraction
After an individual provides documents, the information stored within the document is extracted. This extraction can be performed in several ways, such as Optical Character Recognition (OCR), pattern recognition, and other methods.
Once data is extracted, it is compared against the user’s other data. For example, if the user has uploaded a utility bill as evidence of residence, the address contained within the document will be compared against the information initially provided by the user.
Distinctions between user-supplied data and the information composed within the document should raise a red flag. While these differences may signal an input error, they may also be a symptom of deception.
3. Document Validation
The next step in the process is to validate that the provided documents are authentic. This involves a variety of validation checks that depend on the kind of document being provided.
Some common validation checks are the following:
- Document Completion
To confirm whether the document is completely provided or not, for example, if the document consists of numerous pages, are all mandated pages uploaded?
- Edge Detection and Cropping
Ensure that the document’s edges do not appear to be cropped or tampered with.
- Special Feature Identification
Many official documents are designed with special features such as watermarks, holograms, stamps, foils, fonts, textures, and more. These features are meant to be difficult to forge.
- Colorspace Analysis
A photo’s color provides additional context to signal whether a document is legitimate, falsified, or meddled with.
Key Takeaways
The document verification process is the basic requirement of every industry. It is used to verify documents such as bank statements, employment records, company documents, etc.
This process includes three basic steps: document collection, data extraction, and validation. Verification of documents meets regulatory requirements. Additionally, it mitigates fraud, builds trust, and onboards clients quickly. Digitalization has also offered ground to fraudsters’ advanced technology to execute illicit actions. Automatic algorithm verification methods are the only solution to fight against every kind of terrorism.