Identity fraud in plastic card applications: a potential fit for biometric technologies

Today the most common means we have for fast and accurate personal identification is the plastic card – bank cards, driver licences, membership cards, national identity cards – and as with the passport, the possession of these is seen as significant proof of identity. Sadly, growth in fraud through access to sophisticated card counterfeiting technologies and from the exploitation of anonymous (ie, “cardholder not present”) usage, is raising the stakes for those who would like to grow useful or profitable applications based around cards and card-borne identity credentials. Biometric technologies have a role to play in the elimination or recalculation of fraud risk in many of these applications: but, writes Calum Bunney, there are many biometric factors to consider.

© 2002 Calum Bunney. Calum Bunney is an independent consultant on biometric and authentication technology issues. He can be reached on calum.bunney@wanadoo.fr

In the card world there are other fraud-sensitive areas where biometric technologies have a role to play. Operational areas such as the feeble manual inspection of photo identity cards or passports is an identified weakness where biometric inspection can make a contribution, but this might seem modest beside the problem of frequent wrong issuance of genuine identity documentation to identities that are already bogus. Driver licence applications fraud is for most countries a serious problem, and more so for countries like the UK and the USA, where the licence works as a de facto national ID given the lack of a universal, more stringent solution.