Can a fake fool the experts?
This is a great article published on PLOS|ONE. What chance do we have in ensuring that the documents presented before us are authentic when even the experienced checkers made mistakes? They had error rates as high as 14% for false acceptance of fraudulent photos. Right to Work checks are a requirement for all UK employers. Missing obvious fraudulent documents can result in a fine or imprisonment. However impersonators may also result in a fine as a part of the Right to Work checking process.
Additionally there was an interesting point. When photo to photo tests were done rather than photo to person that the error went up significantly for both groups.
These experienced checkers were seasoned Passport Officers with just over an average of 8.5 years experience. Students tested compared favourably to the Passport Officers in the photo to photo tests.
First, they asked officers to compare photos to live ID-card bearers, and observed high error rates. Secondly, they compared Passport Officers with a set of student participants, and found equally poor levels of accuracy in both groups.
Finally, Passport Officers haven’t any performance advantage over the general population on a standardised face-matching task. Furthermore, across all tasks, they observed very large individual differences. While average performance of passport staff was poor, some officers performed very accurately. This was not related to length of experience or training. As a result they propose that improvements in security could be made by emphasising personnel selection.
Authors David White, Rob Jenkins, Michael Matheson and A. Mike Burton – link to article here
Right to Work checks made easy
Imagine a technology solution which as a part of your Right to Work checks will let you know in a few seconds that:
- All the ID documents provided by your staff as legitimate
- You have the correct document combinations for Right to Work
- You’re receiving notification of any of the documents provided/stored are expiring or expired
- Throughout your organisation you follow the Home Office guidance procedures for Right to Work consistently
