Forum

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

It's pretty hard to tell if a document is real or not from a scan or a picture of it since a scan does not capture all the security features (and the ones that are hardest to replicate aren't visible on a scan).

If the govt offers some way to validate a passport, that would be pretty hard to beat as they can check it against the database. By "access" that includes submitting it for the govt to return a result. For example, Amazon can access the EIN database through the IRS's TIN matching application, which lets them know if your company name and EIN match or not.

Any kind of check digit/barcode/etc is easily replicated by any ID maker who even remotely knows what they're doing. Machine readable text/barcodes are there for the purpose of making it easier to process the IDs with a scanner, not as a security feature (the check digits are not a security feature either, that's to have the machine reject the scan if the check digits don't add up to avoid mis-scans). The information on how the encoding works is more or less public.

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

How many stealth passports\driving licences have you had validated by Amazon recently?

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

US Driver licenses seem to have no problem.

Almost all of them required video verification, which isn't an issue.

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

Is that for US or Europe Amazon?

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

Stealth licences? You put them together for video verification?

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

Yes, these IDs had video verification in mind as a requirement.

And this is for US Amazon.

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

I've had an ID go through for US, but not for UK.

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

Maybe UK Amazon tries to run a credit check or something of the like (And then when nothing comes up on the made up information they reject it).

I find it doubtful that they can detect whether an ID is real or not based on a scan. If something is slightly blurry for example, that's not necessarily ⊗⊗⊗⊗, it could just be an artifact of being scanned.

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

I thought they might use electoral roll to check name matches address in UK. Have used real names in past but that opens you up to bigger issues.
That leaves name and address with no connection and possibly greater verification scrutiny

Private limited company may work better. They have things (via company house) they can verify so perhaps less emphasis on directors residential address?

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

In the US they're more focused on verifying company information.

They verify IRS EIN which is iron clad (if name doesn't match EIN according to the IRS TIN matching app your account will NOT be activated, end of story), and postcard address verification is now mandatory due to INFORM act.

I've never tried opening a sole proprietor account since it makes no sense to do it that way. I'm a US resident so I have no intention of causing problems with the IRS by inducing Amazon to send out false 1099s.

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

Interesting - must have been high quality

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

Exactly the same as ones for eu which have failed.

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

You're using US or EU IDs?

This makes me think that the EU stores do additional checks. The scanning software they use is likely the same across regions, but additional requirements are probably the difference.

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

UK ones for both sites. I think .com is completely different to Europe.

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

Ok, so I know nothing about how the UK govt handles ID data, but it's a possibility the govt is providing Amazon some way to validate IDs.

In the US there's no way to validate driver license information unless you're in law enforcement.

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

I extremely doubt that is the case. I think they can detect the document itself is ⊗⊗⊗⊗.

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

Well, there is a way to test this theory if you're interested and have access to ID suppliers. DM if you want to.

It is possible the suppliers of UK IDs are doing such a crappy job that it's setting off red flags on a scanned image. But its very very hard to tell if a document is authentic when you don't have the original since a scan greatly degrades the quality.

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

I had a DL passed when I'd forgotten to add a signature about 8 months ago. That was UK account.

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

that's amazing

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

LoL, comes to show how inconsistent they are.

Have you tried your creative DL on another account yet since?

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

I'd say it has more to do with the fact that the signature varies from person to person, so the software probably doesn't check it. Like every driver's license has a license # and it's a fixed number of digits, if yours doesn't match the template then something's wrong. But a signature can be small, or big, you can sign with an X, so the scanning software probably excludes that section from analysis.

Re: All 30 New accounts got deactivated
 

One thing to note for US drivers license is they probably do a background check on the name and address. This isn't always a good representation of whether or not a license is real considering people are always moving. However I know other verification softwares check this so amazon's probably does too. If their system checks and the name on the license matches the name on the address in a background check it'll be a point in your favor.