I’m guessing you’re here because you want to know how to verify someone’s identity. Well, I’m going to tell you what you need to know about identity, how it works, and why it’s important. In this guide, I’ll cover all the basics as well as dive deeper into what makes a good solution and some common pitfalls.
What is identity verification?
Identity verification is the process of determining if a person is who they say they are. This can be done by verifying their name, address, and date of birth. It can also be done by verifying their photo, signature, and other personal information.
What you need to know about identity verification
The process of confirming the identity of a person is called identity verification. It is used in e-commerce transactions, financial transactions, and more to reduce fraud and increase trust.
When you verify your identity with a third party like us, we confirm that it’s really you by asking for proof of who you say you are. We may ask for things like:
- A copy of your driver’s license or passport (or other government-issued ID)
- Proof of address (like an electric bill)
- A selfie or photo with some specific text in the background (like an advertisement on TV)
How to verify someone’s identity?
There are two common ways to verify someone’s identity:
- Ask them to provide their driver’s license and/or government-issued photo ID.
- Ask them to log into their online banking or shopping account, then check their profile.
How does identity verification help?
Identity verification helps reduce fraud, prevent identity theft, and prevent money laundering, and terrorist financing. It also helps to prevent tax evasion and the creation of illegal identities. This is all good news for you because it means that there’s less chance that someone can steal your identity or use it to commit crimes under your name.
Implementing an identity verification solution
Implementing an identity solution is a good way to protect your company. This is especially true if you have confidential information that could be sold on the black market, such as banking and tax information.
In this section, we’ll discuss:
- The importance of using an identity verification solution
- How to implement an identity verification solution
- The benefits of implementing an identity verification solution
Identity verification and identity authentication are two different things.
Identity verification and identity authentication are two different things, but they’re often confused.
Authentication is the process of confirming that a person or thing is who it claims to be—think of it like a passport stamp or driver’s license that confirms your identity. Verification is the process of confirming that something (e.g., a document) is genuine—think of it like going through customs at an airport: someone checks your passport against the database to make sure it hasn’t been tampered with, then verifies its legitimacy by inspecting your face against the photo on your ID.
While both processes have their place in identity, they don’t always work well together. A common example might be when we get asked questions about ourselves during an interview for employment; we answer honestly because we’re trying to prove our trustworthiness as employees but those answers could come back later as false positives if there was ever any concern about our security clearance levels after being hired on!
The benefits of identity verification go beyond fraud prevention.
Perhaps you’re wondering what the benefits of identity verification are. Well, it turns out that identity isn’t just used to prevent fraud! Here at BHIM, we use it for everything from verifying a person’s age and facilitating onboarding processes to ensuring that there aren’t any duplicate bank accounts in our system.
When you think about it, there are so many different ways in which you can use identity verification:
- To verify someone’s age (for example, when they apply for a credit card)
- To make sure they aren’t already a customer (and thus avoid duplicates)
Conclusion
Identity verification is a powerful tool that provides many benefits to the user, including fraud prevention and the ability to verify identity information in real time. However, it is also important to note that identity and authentication are two different things. Identity is a process of verifying someone’s identity by comparing it with public records or other documents such as driver’s licenses and social security numbers. This can be done through a manual process or an automated one like online verification systems such as those provided by companies such as Trustly and TransferWise. Meanwhile, authentication involves proving who you say you are when accessing an online account or service through something like 2FA (two-factor authentication).
Visit authID for more information about identity as a service and identity document verification.
