Onfido and INTERPOL Conduct Document Training Session for US CBP Agents

Onfido and INTERPOL are still working together to help international border agencies spot fraudulent identity documents. The two organizations previously conducted a three-day training course for border officials in Southeast Asia, and followed that up with a webinar on ID fraud in August of 2020.

This time around, Onfido and INTERPOL turned their attention to the United States, where they hosted another three-day training session for 30 US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents from New York and New Jersey. Those agents were briefed on the latest security features that are now being embedded in modern identity documents. That knowledge will help those agents spot fraudulent documents at border checkpoints, whether those documents are counterfeits or forgeries, or genuine documents that were obtained through illicit means.

Onfido and INTERPOL then taught the agents how to use some of the identity resources that INTERPOL makes available to international law enforcement, including the Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database and the Edison (Electronic Documentation and Information System on Investigation Networks) system. The former is a record of approximately 100 million passports, visas, and other identity documents known to have gone missing, while the latter is a reference guide that shows agents what legitimate travel documents are supposed to look like. INTERPOL also maintains an Alert Library that lets countries notify the international community if they become aware of a new counterfeiting technique.  

The training session was conducted virtually due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19. However, Onfido argued that a virtual format is appropriate, insofar as criminals have similarly taken their operations online during the pandemic.

“Never before has there been such a focus on online attack vectors, and as criminals continue to innovate, this underscores the importance of unifying our knowledge of both 3D and 2D identity document authentication and to share this unique knowledge in training courses such as this one,” said Onfido Global Fraud Head Michael Van Gestel.

“Document verification is crucial to ensure that documents are both genuine and belong to the rightful holder,” added Daniela Djidrovska, the Coordinator of INTERPOL’s Counterfeit Currency and Security Documents (CCSD) unit, which led the training with Onfido. “While the examination of identity documents is increasingly being taken over by artificial intelligence, travel documents are designed to be verified by trained personnel using sophisticated forensic document equipment. This training provided a vital opportunity to review best practices in the face of the continuous evolution of ID document fraud.”

Onfido itself is a biometric onboarding specialist, and has enjoyed record growth in the past year as the demand for remote identity verification solutions increased during the pandemic.

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August 9, 2021 – by Eric Weiss