Common fake documents and how to spot them
How to spot a fake ID
Since they are the foundation of most know your customer (KYC) onboarding processes, it's crucial to be able to detect fake ID cards like driver's licenses or passports. One of the primary ways fraudsters manipulate IDs is through image doctoring, altering the photo, name, or other details on the ID itself. This can be quite crude: it's often evident when words have been inserted or an all new photo has been imported into the image file. These types of modifications usually leave traces in the image metadata as well as in image attributes that don't match across different portions of the card.
These are not "real" fake IDs that we have detected; they are recreations based on the fraud techniques described above and are for illustrative purposes only.
Stolen IDs being reused unaltered or IDs that have undergone pre-digital modification, meanwhile, can present problems for more traditional fraud detection software. However, these are often given away by noting image similarities across a collection of images. A recurring background is usually a dead giveaway: the same person taking the same type of photos in the same place. Even if the fraudster is clever and uses different backgrounds, then lighting, portions of the image that match characteristics seen elsewhere, and attributes of the device that has uploaded the photo will trip up a fraudster.
These are not "real" fake IDs that we have detected; they are recreations based on the fraud techniques described above and are for illustrative purposes only.
How to spot a fake proof of address
Proof of address can present a problem for traditional fraud detection: fake utility bills, manipulated bank statements, or fake Social Security awards letters might all crop up. Keeping up to date with every possible issuing authority simply isn't possible, especially for multinational businesses dealing with customers all over the world. But the documents that can be used as proof of address are also usually straightforward, and so are frequently made from scratch by unskilled forgers or template farms.
However, making something "close enough" to the real deal ignores the actual complexity contained within the genuine articles.
For instance, some proof of address documents crop up frequently, such as documents from major energy companies and large banks. It's easy to compare incoming documents to templates created from examples already confirmed as genuine, so logo detection that flags out-of-date designs or page layouts inconsistent with real documents commonly outs attempts to fake proof of address.
For documents that are less common or that attempt to alter real examples, minor qualities that can go unnoticed by humans—like copy-pasted letters or inconsistent image qualities—can certainly point to a fraudulent document.
These are not "real" fake proofs of address that we have detected; they are recreations based on the fraud techniques described above and are for illustrative purposes only.
How to spot a fake bank statement
Bank statements are important tools for confirming proof of funds, proof of income, and proof of address, especially for online lenders aiming to carry out the underwriting process. Skilled fraudsters will probably skip outright document forgery and will instead choose to edit PDF versions of bank account statements—these can easily be found online or downloaded from an email or banking app. While the altered end product may be outwardly pretty convincing to a human reviewer, this approach leaves an obvious technological trail that the file has undergone unauthorized changes.
In addition to the logo detection and image attributes mentioned above, these attempts at creating fake bank statements also leave "fingerprints" in the metadata of the files themselves. Anything from timestamps of changes to the document to records of a file passing through a program different from the one known to be used by the issuing bank—as well as potentially dozens of other small details—can be the difference between a real bank statement and an illegitimate one. Again, these differences won't always be caught by the naked eye and require a forensic analysis of the file in question.
These are not "real" fake bank statements that we have detected; they are recreations based on the fraud techniques described above and are for illustrative purposes only.
How to spot fake merchant onboarding materials
Merchant onboarding or know your business (KYB) can carry even higher stakes than KYC onboarding processes: penalties for doing business with inappropriate figures can be higher, more overlapping jurisdictions might come into play, and losses for the SME lenders themselves are often much larger. Fake merchant onboarding materials like certificates of incorporation or business licenses can have the added complication of containing information from many localities and obscure institutions, sometimes in languages and government structures most review teams aren't well versed in.
However, uncovering what is and isn't valid doesn't always require assembling expensive teams of specialists or reaching out to overloaded civil servants: again, a forensic look at the documents a business provides can reject many instances of attempted fraud right away. Completely agnostic of language or nationality, fraudulent merchant onboarding materials can suffer from any of the problems noted above: variations in image qualities, font inconsistencies, and reused images can all be present here. In fact, attributes unique to business documents such as digitally added official stamps or notarizations can offer even more opportunities to find attempts at faking documentation.
These are not "real" fake merchant onboarding materials that we have detected; they are recreations based on the fraud techniques described above and are for illustrative purposes only.
Document Forensics
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