When businesses expand their operations, it is essential to get extra help to get more things done. Hiring qualified resources for the job is one of the many ways to do it. However, not all people that are applying for your jobs have the best interests in mind.
Social engineering is now finding its way into the business ecosystem. Businesses should be aware of the consequences of relaxed onboarding processes, which could compromise the information security and financial security of the concern.
By streamlining your profile screening procedures and identity validation practices, you can be sure of hiring the right fit and not a social engineer who is designated to compromise your ecosystem’s security.
Identity theft is one of the largest crimes reported in the previous calendar years, forcing many companies to restrict their operations in order to prevent financial crimes. By integrating and eventually embracing the quirks of identity validation infrastructure, businesses are now considering the fair advantages and the value propositions of investing in identity validation solutions.
Today, we will discuss 10 essential identity checks in the context of recruitment to prevent identity theft and financial crimes within the business sphere. The following will discuss at length the 10 real-time identity checks to which every business must pay attention.
1. TIN Match
IRS TIN Matching allows you to verify if the TIN details provided by the incoming recruit are in accordance with the official records of the IRS. If the provided TIN/name details do not match the records, it means that the incoming profile has either provided historic or incorrect information.
Either way, it gives you insights into the standing status of the profile with the IRS.
2. OFAC Watch List
OFAC Watch List or Office of Foreign Asset Control check allows you to check if the incoming party has a recorded history of engaging in activities that in some way breach the national security compliance regulations.
Hiring, recruiting, or engaging with profiles with non-compliant history could impose reputational losses and invite unnecessary attention from the federal agencies for your business.
Explore OFAC Watch List API
3. Death Master File
Identifying the social security details of individuals against the SSA data lists will help you verify if the incoming party is claiming the identities of a deceased person. One of the common themes of social engineering is identity theft. While creating new identities can be a complex task altogether, claiming the identities of a low-risk individual (now deceased) works in favour of the social engineer. This can work against your best efforts due to the first-hand evidence produced by the claimer.
However, conducting a variety of identity checks and especially checking the identity details against the death master file will enable you to validate the identity claims and prevent your business from onboarding suspicious individuals.
4. Specially Designated Nationals
This check will allow you to check if the incoming profile has a history of engaging with terror financing regimes, or connections with terrorist organizations, engaging in restricted export activities, and other off-limit regimes, which are termed noncompliant and unlawful by the federal agencies.
While you are screening your profiles for criminal history and adverse media coverage, the SDN check will allow you to check designated records per the national security authorities.
5. Politically Exposed People
When a controversial individual, be it a business person, celebrity, politician, or professional that has a history of money laundering, or national security breaches, or national asset theft, the individual is categorized and listed in the PEP data list.
When you engage in employer-employee or any other kind of business arrangement with such high-risk profiles, your business could ensure reputational, financial, and legal liabilities, forcing you to prohibit or restrict your operations.
By conducting such checks, you can steer clear of PEP profiles, preventing your business from the above liabilities and risks
6. Address Validation
When recruiting a professional, it is important to check and validate the residential or mailing address of the individual. This is to ensure that any mail that you may choose to send reaches the individual without fail.
Further, it helps you check if the address claimed by the profile and the address furnished in the social security card is the same, allowing you to validate the social security details of the profile.
7. Denied Persons List
Individuals, professionals, and entities that have engaged in some kind of restricted trade activities are categorically listed in the Denied Persons List. By engaging with individuals listed in this data list, you could invite civil penalties and notices from federal agencies.
DPL usually lists individuals who have been denied export privileges by the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).
8. Foreign Sanction Evaders
When you want to acquire talent but want to ensure that they do not have any sanctions issued against them or want to make sure that they are not engaging in any transactions with sanctioned individuals or entities, the FSE check will give you the necessary answers.
Usually, individuals or entities that are engaging with sanctioned individuals or entities are penalized with civil liabilities for violating federal sanctions. Hence, they’re called ‘Sanction Evaders’.
Recruiting or employing a person with such a complex history will transfer the risk to your entity. To steer clear of such high-risk profiles, the FSE check is a must.
9. Excluded Individuals/Entities
When certain individuals or entities are restricted from participating in federal health care programs, it means that they are not eligible for the healthcare benefits that your company might be offering.
This could mean that even if you offer very good healthcare benefits to your employees, this particular individual may not be qualified for such benefits. Further, since they are not approved for such benefits, you may not be able to withhold federal healthcare taxes from their pay.
10. SOS Business Entity Search
When recruiting C-suite employees for a company, talent acquisition teams are required to check the official documentation of the business from its inception to understand the track record of the individual.
When you conduct the SOS business entity search, you can obtain the legal documentation of the business, such as MOA, AOA, appointing letters of officers in charge, and other business documentation, which is crucial for validation.
Ensuring that you are hiring a C-suite professional with compliant employment, legal, and civil history gives the organization a reputational boost since most companies push the PR narrative around these elements.
TIN Verify, a real-time identity verification platform, enables businesses like you to identify, validate, and verify the incoming profiles in just a few seconds. TIN Verify is the complete compliance check package, which gives you authorized information in real-time per the official records of the federal agencies.
