In the third quarter of 2018 (July to September 2018), the number of documents scanned by our customers increased by 15% compared to the second quarter of this year. This is due both to more companies introducing technology to support ID checks and to existing customers continuing to validate a high number of applicants.
Those sectors which have historically seen a high number of fake documents – particularly the construction and recruitment sectors – continued to do so in this quarter.
For customers in the construction sector, over 50% of the fake documents which they sent us purported to be identity documents issued in Great Britain.
From our recruitment agency customers, our helpdesk saw fake identity documents purporting to be issued in 11 different countries, with more than a third claiming to be European ID cards.
Our customers identified fake documents using all of our validation solutions – cloud, mobile and desktop scanning.
The number of false Biometric Residence Permits and Visas remains high and may identify illegal workers who are using genuine passports but have false residence documentation to live in the UK.
From our analysis, we can conclude that our customers across a wide range of markets are regularly presented with fake documents purporting to be issued in around 20 different countries. Our technology helps them quickly and easily identify these documents and protect themselves from potential fraud, illegal working fines and reputational damage.