French conglomerate and identity technology giant Thales has joined forces with IDScan.net to develop products aimed at tackling fraud and offenses using fake ID, particularly concerning underage drinking in the U.S.

The partnership was unveiled by New Orleans-based IDScan.net, which says it will bring together Thales’s identity document scanners and its own VeriScan Authentication software to check IDs against hologram and watermark libraries.

At the time of writing, the firms have collaborated on two separate ID scanners based on the Thales CR5400 and AT10K models. The devices come with VeriScan already integrated and support ID verification features, as well as ID information parsing into a visitor management system to help security teams manage ban lists and prevent chargebacks.

From a hardware standpoint, the CR5400 and AT10K devices can perform UV/IR/white light scanning, as well as rapid six-image capture to ensure scanned IDs can be read correctly by VeriScan.

According to the firms, the age verification scanners aim to fill a technical gap created by the lack of identification technologies for fake ID, particularly in the light of many fake IDs being sophisticated and typically passing a visual inspection and barcode scan checks.

“Most bars and nightclubs think any scanning of an ID is catching fakes, but the reality is most ID scanning apps are just verifying age; they don’t catch any fake IDs at all,” comments IDScan.net CEO Terry Slattery. “Even companies with more sophisticated tech simply can’t do it without specialty hardware.”

The executive adds he believes the partnership with Thales will now contribute to the further adoption of the VeriScan software across North America, particularly in those states, including Nevada, unveiling legislation aimed at reducing underage drinking (and tobacco purchases).

“We’ve partnered with best-in-class hardware because we know how important fake ID detection and ID authentication is to our nightlife customers,” Slattery adds. “With Thales products, you know that the hardware can truly put an ID through its paces and do it very quickly.”

The collaboration with IDScan.net comes weeks after Thales announced passing an interoperability test for mobile driver’s licenses and digital identities in Australia.

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