To maintain exacting standards of compliance, fraud prevention, and regulatory
alignment, it is essential that submitted documents meet strict quality and authenticity
criteria.
Documents that fail to meet these standards are flagged as unacceptable and cannot
be used for identity verification.
Image Quality Standards
Clear and legible
All text, numbers, and photos must be sharp and readable. If this is not the case, the fields unreadable will read "N/A".
Even lighting
Avoid glare, shadows, or reflections that obscure key details.
Full document visible
Ensure all edges and corners are captured, no cropping
or partial views.
Correct orientation
The document should be upright and not tilted or upside
down.
Original document only, No Scans
Uploads must be of the physical ID. No scans,
screenshots, or photocopies.
Common Document Inadequacies
Uncertain Provenance
Documents where the origin or authenticity cannot be verified:
• Certified by unknown or unratified third parties
• Manipulated or unverifiable copies
• Image quality too poor for fraud checks
Black and White Copies
Black and white copies obscure security features and raise red flags:
- Cannot verify document origin
- Was the document authenticated properly?
Scanned Copies
Scans often degrade image quality and obscure authenticity. These are not suitable for fraud detection.
- Common fraud tactic to avoid submitting originals
- Poor resolution and sizing issues
- Security features lost in scan
Screenshots
Providing a copy from a phone or screen is high-risk, potential fraud territory:
- Original document has not been seen
- It can easily be manipulated
- Security features, edges cannot easily be detected due to quality issues
- Cannot confirm provenance of who took the photo and when
If one of these issues causes a "Fail" to be returned, information as to the reason will be provided on the results page.
Document Quality Standards (Mobile)
Using the mobile journey – users are guided significantly by good selfie and document capture practices at each stage.
With the mobile journey, SmartSearch have less control over the images that clients are capturing and significantly rely on Daon to aid their capture. We should instill the following recommended standards where possible to achieve the best outcomes.
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BEST PRACTICE |
NOT BEST PRACTICE
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Selfie:
Images that may not follow all best practices may still be accepted thanks to the provider’s advanced Liveness capture. These are recommended standards, not strict requirements. Principles should be around similar standards to taking of a passport photo.
Documents:
Document captures best practices are as such:
Mobile journey users should follow the on-screen instructions and use automatic capture. Align the document within the guidance rectangle; once conditions are met, the system will capture it automatically.
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Selfie:
Images captured in the following environments have a reduced chance of acceptance.
For each of these – clear instructions are provided when there are issues to rectify. Selfies where an image is being captured what is clearly not a real person, will not be permitted. Users should also ensure they are appropriately dressed.
Documents:
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Driving Licence - Back of document may be required. Please upload where prompted. If through mobile journey, the client will be prompted where necessary.
This may say "optional", in which case we recommend that the back is uploaded, but the check may be performed without.
Document Quality Standards (Manual)
Recommended standards are as follows:
- Clear and legible: All text, numbers, and photos must be sharp and readable.
- Even lighting: Avoid glare, shadows, or reflections that obscure key details.
- Full document visible: Ensure all edges and corners are captured, no cropping of the biometric page where it would obscure key details.
- Correct orientation: The document should be upright and not tilted or upside down.
- Original document only: Uploads must be of the physical ID. No screenshots, or poor quality or black and white scans.
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ACCEPTABLE |
NOT ACCEPTABLE
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Clear UK Driving Licence with all four corners visible and all details visible
Details within Passport are clear and legible. Wording is horizontal. MRZ is fully on display and not obscured. High quality image.
High quality image. 300+ DPI. All details clearly visible Colour image. Easily read. High quality scan. Clear information. All information visible, including security features. In colour.
Also acceptable – where the image has been cropped to show only the biometric page. |
Image is clearly captured from a screen and will fail. Also Black & White.
The scanned image only is a small % of the space for the file uploaded. The upload should focus on the key biometric details of the document. Formatting image in this way reduces quality and makes it harder to obtain a pass result. |
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These requirements will help provide the best chance to receive a positive outcome although results cannot be guaranteed.
Note that uploading documents through the SmartSearch platform directly does not fully utilise the full range of security and fraud prevention checks that Daon provides. The validation that also is provided via the mobile journey to allow users to retry is not present when uploading documents in this way.
We will continue to monitor its effectiveness as a method of conducting document verification.
The most efficient way of capturing images is via the user providing these by using the mobile journey.