In many cases, pensioners had been persuaded to give out personal details and passwords. While this type of fraud could happen to anyone it has a significant financial impact on those who rely on these funds to survive. For many, passwords and PINs, identity numbers and addresses are not seen as secret keys to their cash. They are often not aware of how this information can be used to steal their identities and gain access to their accounts. This is especially true for those who live in rural areas and who face significant difficulties when it comes to collecting their pensions. In an electronic age, personal information has become extremely valuable and something that should remain protected. One way to protect this information is through the use of fingerprint biometrics.
Biometrics has become the solution of choice for many organisations and government entities as it ensures that only the person to whom funds are allocated can collect them. Only the fingerprint registered with an account can be used to access that account and all fingerprints are absolutely and definitively unique. This technology has been used to great effect around the world with Mexico implementing a voice biometrics system for rural pensioners and Nigeria eliminating nearly 40% of its beneficiary roll when it introduced biometrics to its pension system.
In Argentina, the government pension programme ANSES found that it had 25% better performance with multispectral imaging fingerprint sensors than with conventional sensors. Multispectral imaging was chosen over other fingerprint technologies as it is able to capture relevant information from deep within a finger, even an elderly finger with fingerprint features that may have become less defined over the years. Now ANSES is building a national fingerprint database - the agency expects this to consist of four fingerprints per person for approximately 11 million records. ANSES also found that the new system has allowed for improved efficiencies within the bank branches allowing a reassignment of 40 jobs as they no longer had a need to manage the lines of people waiting to prove their identities.
The introduction of the simple tap of a finger to identify with biometrics not only increases efficiency, it has incredible potential to eliminate fraud. Only the pensioner to whom the funds are allocated can access them through a biometric terminal - no PIN or password is required.
Aside from the technical benefits of biometrics - absolute identification of who you are - there are the personal ones. While statistics point to the young being the most enthusiastic about biometric adoption (Visa survey 2014), the elderly and the vulnerable can now use a system that is far easier and simpler than the traditional PIN and password. There is hardly a learning curve to using a biometric system as they hold their finger to the device, and while registration procedures vary according to application and department, once they have been added to the system, they are in there for good.
There is no need for the pensioner to remember a new fingerprint, to carry anything extra or to bring seven different types of identification. Everything is held in the unique fingerprint that has been stored as a digital template on the system. This alone provides a truly rich layer of security that defeats many barriers to entry for those who are not comfortable with a high level of technology and security. While fraudsters may still be able to get a PIN or a password, without the true-life finger, they won't be able to access the system. Simple, effective and coded to the individual, biometrics is a superb tool for the elderly and the vulnerable, protecting them without demanding they learn even more numbers and codes to gain access to their own funds.
