Information on Passport Validation Service (PVS)
How the Passport Validation Service has made a difference
The Passport Validation Service (PVS) has had some notable successes in fraud
prevention as some of our customers will testify:
- “A customer applied for a business bank account, with a lending facility
of £500,000. The applicant passed all of the credit checks - only
the identification needed to be presented before the accounts could be approved.
The application and ID docs were sent to the central lending department to
be signed off - staff called PVS to have the passport checked. It turns out
the document was a forgery, so the application was declined. Although no
arrest was made it stopped a potential loss of half a million pounds!
Major high street bank customer
- "A check with PVS often confirms our suspicion over the validity of
a passport. If the customer is still in the branch we advise them to call
the police. A number of arrests have been made and accounts stopped at the
point of application.”
Major high street bank customer
- “We have also been able to close the accounts of existing customers
who managed to open their accounts with false documents. The PVS check is
carried out when the passport is used as proof of identification to support
large cash withdrawals. The withdrawal is therefore declined, the account
is closed and a loss to the bank is avoided."
Major high street bank customer
- “The man had changed the date of birth on the passport as the genuine
passport holder was much younger than him. This meant the case was referred
to PVS’s fraud filter team as the bio details differed. The fraud filter
team requested a fax of the passport and upon receipt it was apparent that
the photograph had been substituted. The fraud filter team requested that
the passport be retained and it has since been returned to us. PVS is getting
counterfeit passports out of circulation.”
Major high street bank customer
- “One such case involved a man who substituted the photo on a genuine
passport. It was a very good substitution and would not have been easily
spotted by the untrained eye and therefore probably wouldn't have raised
the suspicion of the bank cashier but since it fell into the criteria for
a referral to PVS the bank cashier phoned for a validation.”
Major high street bank customer
