The Australian Government's Document Verification Service (DVS) has made the driver's license card number a mandatory field when verifying a driver's license.

The driver's license card number is unique to each new driver's license card that is issued. It is distinct from the driver's license number, which does not change when a new card is issued. The Australian Government says this change will help reduce identity fraud and impersonation by ensuring that only the most recently issued driver's license card can be used in a verification check.

Some of PassFort's data providers, such as Equifax Australia, use the Australian DVS to verify driver's licenses. Equifax say these changes are "particularly relevant for those affected by the Optus breach" in which some Australian driver's license numbers were exposed.

What's changed?

When an Australian driver's license is added via the PassFort portal, the card number can be added to the new driver's license card number field. When it's added via the API, the card number can be sent in the new issue_number field.

We pass the driver's license card number to the Equifax Australia integration as the driver's license card number. This improves automation rates for applications in PassFort when using Equifax Australia's IDMatrix.

Adding driver's license details using the PassFort portal

When PassFort collects document details, you've always been asked to enter a document number. For driver's licenses, this is the permanent driver's license number.

If you have chosen the option of adding an Australian driver's license, we will now also ask you to enter the driver's license number and the new driver's license card number.

Adding a driver's license using the PassFort API

We now accept an optional issue_number in the documents_metadata section of the PassFort API.

The driver's license card number should be provided in the new issue_number field. As before, the driver's license number should go in the number field.

For example:

"documents_metadata": [
  {
    "document_type": "DRIVERS_LICENSE",
    "country_code": "AUS",
    "number": "The driver's license number",
    "issue_number": "The driver's license card number", // the new optional field
    "issuing_state": "VIC"
  }
]

Limitations

• PassFort currently only supports this additional field for Australian driver's licenses.
• Only the Equifax Australia integration has been updated to make use of the new field.

What you need to do

If you process Australian driver's licenses using Equifax's PassFort integration, begin collecting the driver's license card number from your customers.

Enter these numbers in the driver's license card number field of the PassFort portal as shown above, or submit them in the issue_number field of the documents_metadata in the PassFort API.

You can find out more in the PassFort help docs and our API docs. If you have any questions, just get in touch with Support.