Address Verification: Everything You Should Know About

Over the years, the increase in fraudulent activities has caused massive losses to organizations. One way to bring down this number is by hiring genuine candidates who are high on integrity. To facilitate this, one needs a stringent address verification service in place. 

What is Address Verification? 

Address verification refers to verifying the address shared by the candidate with the company. If authenticates if the address the applicant claims to be staying at is genuine or not. Companies do not just use address verification services for hiring employees but also for vendor verification and customer onboarding. 

Just like there is a need for a trustworthy employee as they have access to sensitive information, similarly, customers need to be genuine and creditworthy so you know they won’t default on payments or carry out illegal activities. This is exceptionally important for financial and telecom service providers.

Why is Employee Address Verification Essential?

Scam prevention: To prevent any sort of fraud, address verification is key. Employees have unlimited access to internal and external information, deals, M&As, financial records, and even money. If misused or compromised, this ends up doing a lot of harm. An address verification service is of the highest importance to manage reputational risk and avert identity fraud.

Emergency scenarios: Address verification aids employers in reaching out to the employees’ families when an emergency arises or under unforeseen circumstances, t. 

Key documentation for other processes: Once the employee’s address is verified, it acts as the base for additional documents, submissions, and rewards. There is no need to repeat the verification on the conclusion of thorough employee verification.

Improved compliance: To maintain the integrity of the workplace, businesses should perform identity verification checks. This helps companies guarantee individual safety and comply with KYC rules and regulations.

Process of Employee Address Verification

There are two ways to carry out address verification

The Traditional form of Address Verification

A field officer undertakes address verification physically and in person by visiting the employee’s house. They validate details such as how long they have been residing at the given address, other members who live there, etc. An employee can have a temporary and a permanent address, in which case the latter is considered more dependable.

Online Address Verification

Companies these days ensure fool-proof safety by providing digitally advanced services such as video KYC solution and digitized address verification services. It makes life easy for both the applicants and the employers. 

The applicant needs to carry out the process digitally from the comfort of their homes. The candidate needs to fill in an online form with details and provide a scanned photo ID, a live residence photo, and a selfie. The innovative software detects the geo-coordinates (latitude and longitude values) of the location and uses various data points to verify the address digitally. It minimizes paperwork and enhances the applicant’s hiring experience. 

Digitized address verification services overcome multiple challenges associated with the traditional form of address verification such as: 

• Time taken
• Difficult in verifying the addresses of applicants in remote locations
• Manual errors – wrong information and omitting some vital data
• Data inaccuracy and inadequacy 
• Costs involved
• Cumbersomeness and inefficiency in data management

Valid Documents for Address Verification

Below is the list of valid address verification documents for an individual:

• Aadhar card or any government-issued ID
• Utility bills such as gas bills, electricity bills, internet bills
• Rental agreement
• Property tax receipt
• Posted mail with applicant’s name
• Voter ID
• Insurance policy
• Driver’s license
• Credit card statement

Organizations across industries require address verification to avert fraud. But this is exceptionally important in the financial sector, telecom sector, and e-commerce sector. The financial sector deals with money and sensitive data that can cause heavy losses. 

Authenticating both the customers and employees is critical here to mitigating risks of bad debts, money laundering, account takeover, and terrorist financing. The E-commerce sector is all about delivering to an address and involves the field workforce majorly; here, both the delivery people and the buyers need to be vetted to prevent losses to the company. 

Address verification is the first step toward hiring and dealing with honest people. If something as basic as the address provided by them turns out to be incorrect, no further vetting is required.