6 Steps How to Check if a Passport is Fake

18/11/2024

For regulated businesses, checking if a passport is real is essential. This confidence helps with onboarding new clients, assessing risk, and meeting legal requirements. 

Financial institutions, law firms, and online businesses need easy, reliable ways to check identity documents to prevent fraud. If a business fails to detect a fake passport, it opens itself up to financial losses, legal trouble and fines as well as damaged trust as a firm. New methods for creating fake identity documents make it harder to spot fake passports. Traditional checks are slow down this process and can introduce mistakes.

These manual methods, shown below, also mention the 6 steps in how Validient checks if a passport is fake in seconds.

Validient provides a fast and reliable way to check identity documents, a fake passport or signs of identity theft. This helps businesses ensure they are working with real clients. 

This guide explains how to identify fake passports manually, but we also talk about the 6 steps how Validient checks if a passport is fake, and show how Validient’s technology makes the verification process easier and quicker.

How to Check if a Passport is Fake: Manual Methods

Employees of firms are not known to be trained in identifying counterfeit documents and will sometimes wonder how to check if a passport is fake when using manual methods. Here are some common tricks to help spot a fake document:

  1. Check Holograms and Watermarks: Real passports from passport issuing authorities often have holograms or watermarks that reflect light in unique ways. Shine a light on the document to check for these. A fake passport often lacks these details or has low-quality versions.
  1. Look at Microprinting and Fine Lines: Many identity documents and passports contain tiny text or intricate lines in the design. These features are hard to replicate. Fake passports and false documents may miss these details or have blurry versions.
  1. Feel the Material and Texture: Real passports feel sturdy, with high-quality paper that isn’t too glossy or flimsy. A fake passport might use cheaper materials and feel different to the touch.
  1. Examine the Photo: A real passport photo is usually clear and may have a holographic overlay. If the photo looks grainy, smudged, or altered, it might be fake.

While these methods can help, they take time to inspect and may miss modern forgeries, especially if uploaded digitally. Validient’s solution not only automates this process, they include these additional layers of checks and authentication, making it faster and more accurate.

Challenges with Manual Verification of Identity Documents

Checking identity documents by hand can be tricky and slow. Some common issues include:

  • Human Error: Manual checks depend on the person inspecting the document. Without training, they might miss telltale signs of a fake passport.
  • Time-Consuming: Careful review of each document carefully can takes take a lot of time, which can will delay client onboarding and subsequent due diligence.
  • Limited Resources: Manual setups often do not have access to certain databases or tools, making it easier to miss important details that could show reveal a fake document.

How Validient’s Solution Detects Fake Passports

Validient’s identity verification platform is designed to detect fake identity documents quickly and accurately. 

Here’s how it works:

Document and Photo Upload
  1. Document and Photo Upload

Clients securely upload an image of their document and capture a live photo of their face using Validient’s client portal. This portal is simple to use and keeps data secure, which is important for businesses that have strict privacy needs. There is also This can be done entirely through the client’s web browser, with no need for the client to download any app.


Biometric Facial Comparison
  1. Biometric Facial Comparison

Validient uses facial recognition to ensure the client is present when completing the process, and compare the live photo with the government-issued document photo, such as a passport or driving license. This helps stop identity theft by making sure ensuring the person presenting the document is its rightful owner.


Document Verification
  1. Detailed Verification of Document Alterations

Validient’s platform checks the passport photo and other details for signs of tampering or poor-quality images. Its system can detect small changes that the human eye might miss, making it especially useful in high-risk settings.


Database Documet Cross-Referencing
  1. Cross-Referencing with Reliable Databases

The system checks the document against trusted databases. It confirms if the document is valid and if it has any issues. This step helps businesses identify and avoid suspicious clients.


 Compliance, Risk Checks and reporting
  1. Automated Compliance and Risk Checks

Validient’s platform runs checks against lists of Politically Exposed Persons (PEP’s) and sanctioned individuals. This is important for businesses that need to meet Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations. These automated checks make enhanced due diligence easier and faster.


  1. Results and Reporting

After the verification, Validient generates a report highlighting any issues or concerns. This helps businesses make informed decisions, reducing the risk of working with someone using false documents.

Benefits of Validient’s Identity Verification Solution

Validient’s system brings multiple benefits, making it ideal for businesses that need a to perform quick and accurate identity checks:

Faster Client Onboarding

The platform automates most of the verification process, helping businesses speed up onboarding and reduce wait times for clients.

Improved Accuracy

With facial recognition and thorough document checks, Validient reduces errors. This accuracy helps businesses stay compliant and reduce their exposure to risk.

Simplified Compliance

Validient’s system can also run automated checks for PEPs and Sanctions screening for AML compliance. Ensuring businesses stay compliant and ensures they never skip important checks.

Secure Data Handling

Using Validient’s client portal, businesses can keep sensitive data safe, which is important for maintaining customer trust and meeting data security standards.

Easy Integration

Validient’s solution is designed to integrate smoothly with existing workflows, so businesses can improve their verification process without changing their entire system.

Real-World Uses for Validient’s Solution

Validient’s compliance platform is valuable in many industries, especially those where identity theft and fraud prevention are major concerns. Here’s how it helps specific sectors:

Financial Services

For banks and financial institutions, Validient’s platform simplifies the process of verifying identity documents, which helps meet AML standards and reduces the risk of onboarding clients with fake passports. This ensures safer client onboarding and reduces exposure to fraud.

E-commerce and Online Services

Online businesses face growing risks from identity fraud. Validient’s system helps by verifying identity documents, such as passports. This added security builds customer trust and reduces the chances of fraud.

Employment and HR Verification

Companies can use Validient to check identity documents, like passports, during hiring. This reduces the risk of hiring under false identities, making it easier for companies to follow their own compliance rules.

Legal Industry

For law firms and legal services, Validient’s system helps verify client identities quickly and accurately. This supports due diligence and helps firms meet regulatory requirements, making sure clients are who they say they are. Validient’s solution also speeds up the process of verifying important identity documents, like passports, so firms can complete compliance checks faster.

Conclusion

Validient’s identity verification platform gives businesses a reliable way to verify passports and detect fake documents. By using facial recognition, automated compliance, and secure data handling, Validient helps regulated businesses reduce risk, improve client onboarding, and ensure compliance.

For businesses that need to know how to check if a passport is fake, Validient provides a smart solution. With Validient, companies can trust that their identity verification process is fast, reliable, and accurate.

In a world where identity theft and document fraud are rising, Validient’s platform helps businesses protect themselves and their clients.

Looking for more than just identity verification?

Identity verification is just one of the services we can offer through the Validient platform. Built for AML compliance, we onboard both individual and commercial clients (with full international organisational structures to identify beneficial ownership) as well as ongoing monitoring, proof of funds, custom questionnaires, and risk assessments.

Our centralised platform also efficiently records all due diligence activities, ensuring that every decision is well-documented in preparation for future audits.

For more on: Ongoing Monitoring | Risk Assessments | Proof Of Funds


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