Verification documents –  against documents forgery in banking institutes

The recent rise in document forgery calls for the demand for a verification system that would work against the counterfeiting attempts scored by the fraudsters to the system. Forgery attempts are taken to gain benefit from the organization through illegal means and are always followed by damage and destruction to the integrity of the organizations in the form of financial and credibility losses.

Actions are always taken to prevent these incidents but since the world is walking towards the road of digitalization, the extent of these attacks is growing more vigorous. Taking into consideration this acceleration, an AI-assisted verification document system would not only increase the precision of document authenticity but will also counteract the forgery attempts taken.

Document forgery – The case of Odisha

As reported by medical dialogues on November 22, 2021, a man was arrested by Badambadi police in Cuttack for impersonating a doctor from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and taking several lakhs of loan from the bank for buying an SUV.

He used forged documents to fake his identity and loaned around Rs 16 lakhs for the purpose. He was also accused of taking a car loan from the Bank of Baroda in 2019 in the same way. A non-payment of loan report has been filed against him at Nayapalli police station.

A quick chat about forgery

Forgery is a white-collar crime. It is done by altering a legal resource for the purpose of gaining illegitimate benefits. Fraudsters temper the documents and testify it as original with the intent of harming and defrauding an organization. And since banks have to deal with money transactions and sensitive data, document forgery is very common here.

Document forgery comes in many types;

  • Illegitimate documents. Illegitimate documents are completely fake and lack the official standards of the original documents like government stamps, rainbow images, and holograms, etc. 
  • False documents. These are stolen documents from authorized users. Fraudsters use them for their personal agenda.
  • Modified documents. These are altered documents aimed at fake identification. These are designed and developed in a way that humans can be easily fooled, but with artificial intelligence, they can be detected and caught.
The demand for document verification solution 

Verifying the document the user is presenting and attesting it against any attempted forgery acts is called the verification documents procedure. Document verification systems should be introduced into the banking systems and financial institutes. This can operate against the forgery attempts and make the Know Your Customer (KYC) process a lot smoother and adaptable than what is now.

In banks, the user is required to give his full credentials before applying for an account opening. This process is known as Know Your Customer (KYC), which asks organizations to know and authenticate their customers before facilitating them with assets. If this step is skipped, there is a huge possibility that customers lie and forge their identities. Document attestation checks and verifies whether the customer sitting in front is genuine or not.

The working of the Document Verification Process

An AI-supported ID document authentication can extract the information from the documents presented by the customer, scan and compare it against official documents provided by the government. An AI-enabled document verifier checks the authenticity of the documents by identifying the format of the document, evaluating and confirming the machine-readable zone, micro prints, and holograms, and classifying the ink and paper used in the document, along with looking for signs of tampering and forging.

Benefits of AI-powered verification documents
  1. Prevention of identity frauds with Identity verification documents. Since the forging attempts are mostly done on identity documents, identity document verification can help in looking at the pixel level of the document and analyze the signs of any tampering attempt on the papers. All the documents will be checked and verified from official papers delivered by the government and the organization.
  2. Smooth delivery of Know Your Customers (KYC). We can verify documents and smooth out the KYC process by enabling controls against forgery attempts and deception.
  3. Fast and efficient customer onboarding. Because the customers have to stand in long lines to get document verification, the addition of verification documents can speed up the customer onboarding process.
Concluding remarks

The illicit activities related to document forgery can be prevented or at least reduced with the incorporation of document verification. This can protect the organization from financial losses and their reputation will not be at risk every time a customer arrives with forged documents. Additionally, the tiring long lines of customers waiting for document verification services will be reduced with its introduction.