What is ID Authentication?
Not all ID scanning is created equally. ID authentication offers the most robust set of security checks on an ID. Below, you’ll find the 4 most-common levels of ID examination, and what checks are included in each.
| Basic ID Parsing | 2D Barcode Security Checks | Front & Back Matching | ID Authentication | |
| Parses 2D (PDF417) barcodes on IDs and drivers licenses | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Date of birth is compared to current date to determine customer age | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| ID expiration date is checked | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 75+ algorithmic checks on 2D barcode | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| 2D Barcode size/dimension checks | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| 2D Barcode data format checks | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| State-specific 2D barcode checks | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Compare 2D barcode data to text on front of the ID using OCR | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Ultraviolet light ID scanning | ✓ | |||
| Infrared light ID scanning | ✓ | |||
| White light ID scanning | ✓ | |||
| 6-image comparison and examination | ✓ | |||
| Checks against ID hologram libraries | ✓ | |||
| Checks against ID watermark libraries | ✓ | |||
| Catch up to 95% of fake IDs | ✓ |
How common are fake IDs?
12.5% of US high schoolers and 46% of US college students admit to possessing and using a fake ID. Fraudulent IDs can easily be purchased for as little as $25 from foreign websites.
Most of these fakes seem and feel legitimate to the naked eye. Even highly trained bouncers and security professionals will fail to identify the IDs as suspicious.
Best ID Scanners For Catching Fakes
To catch fake IDs you will need specialty hardware capable of multi-light scanning and checks against hologram and watermark libraries.
CR5400 ID Scanner
This toaster-style scanner from Thales is one of the most cost-effective authentication devices on the market. It can authenticate drivers licenses and ID cards in <3 seconds.
E-Seek M500
Powerful and durable, the E-Seek M500 digital forensic document reader can fully authenticate all IDs with an extremely high degree of accuracy, using its high resolution cameras.
Thales AT9K
The Thales AT9K is a legacy scanner, replaced by the AT10K, but is still powerful. In addition to IDs it can scan global passports and read passport RFID.
All of these scanners require hookup to a computer with at least 32-bit or 64-bit processing capabilities. To perform authentication at speed you want to ensure you have the required bandwidth on the device.
Compare ID Authentication Capable Hardware
All the scanners below are capable of performing best-in-class ID authentication and forensic document reading.
 |
|  |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ID Scanner | Thales CR5400 | Thales AT10K | Thales AT9K | E-Seek M500 | Thales KR9000 |
| Scanner type | Drop-in | Flatbed, hooded | Flatbed, hooded | Drop-in | Flatbed |
| Reliably scans all US government issued IDs and drivers licenses (PDF417) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scans global passports, and other MRZ documents | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Scans medical marijuana cards (view available states) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Use optical character recognition (OCR) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Read RFID | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| USB Powered (device receives power from the computer) | ✓ | ||||
| Requires external power supply | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Capture photos of the ID or cropped ID image | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Simultaneous dual-sided image capture | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Ultraviolet (UV) light scanning | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Infrared (IR) light scanning | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| White light scanning | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Perform hologram checks (when paired with VeriScan ID Authentication) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Perform watermark checks (when paired with VeriScan ID Authentication) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Capable of detecting up to 95% of fake IDs (when paired with VeriScan ID Authentication) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Manufacturing location | US/China | China | China | South Korea | China |
| Compatible with Windows OS | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dimensions | 7″ x 4.25″ x 4.53″ | 7.4″ x 6.3″ x 2.6″ | 7.5″ x 6.4″ x 6.2″ | 4.8″ x 5.7″ x 8.5″ | 7.5″ x 6.4″ x 4.8″ |
| Weight | 2.2 lbs | 2.4 lbs | 2.2 lbs | 4.5 lbs | 2.4 lbs |
Integrate ID Authentication
Easily integrate our authentication SDK into your existing Windows, iOS, Android, or Linux application.
We have designed our system to be easily installed by your development team and consistently update our library with new ID formats as they are released, ensuring our technology will authenticate even the newest IDs.
Frequently Asked Questions
We regularly achieve accuracy at detecting more than 95% of fake IDs. However, fraudsters are tricky and they are always adapting. Fake IDs become more and more sophisticated each year. There will always be exceptional fakes that cannot be detected by any software (or the human eye). Our software is AI-powered, and we continuously train three distinct neural networks to improve our rate of fake detection.
Additionally, we go above and beyond to prevent false positives, because we know the last thing our customers want is to turn away a legitimate patron, or accuse an honest customer of using a fake ID. For this reason, we offer configurable strictness levels, which allow you to determine your own acceptable thresholds to best meet your business objectives.
Mobile apps can catch some percentage of fake IDs using 2D barcode security checks. 2D barcode security (sometimes called “ID validation”) performs a series of checks on the information on the 2D barcode. These checks are for fake ID “tells” such as mis-spellings, using incorrect abbreviations (ex. shortening Brown to “BWN” instead of “BRN”), size, and location of the barcode. Many low quality fakes cannot pass these barcode security checks, and so apps that read only the 2D barcode (mobile apps and ID scanning software running on a mobile device) can catch these.
However, we have compared the results of some of the most commonly used mobile apps which claim to verify age and detect fakes. They caught less than 35% of the fakes in our library, and some of the apps caught none at all.
ID authentication is included in our top plan for our VeriScan product. It is also available via SDK, or paired with WizzForms software. Each has a different cost.
ID authentication requires ID scanning hardware that can perform UV, infrared, and white light scanning, front/back matching, and hologram and watermark library checks. We sell the following authentication-capable ID scanning hardware:
E-Seek M500 (best-in-class)
Thales AT10K (IDs and passports)
Thales AT9K (IDs and passports)
Because we know this sophisticated hardware can sometimes present a cost barrier, we sell open-box and certified refurbished scanners at a low price point.
ID authentication can only tell you whether a document is authentic. Identity verification using facial matching is required to match the individual to the photo on the id.
mDLs are very new, and thusly the security features have yet to be fully documented consistently. We offer ID scanners that are capable of scanning mDLs and authenticating physical IDs. To provide an additional layer of security when mDL use is expected, we can provide DMV data verification checks that will confirm that the ID was issued by the state, and confirm the information on the ID in <3 seconds.
Scanning an ID and returning results varies based on whether you are performing a 2D barcode security check, or full authentication.
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