Estate agents and landlords up and down the country are being hoodwinked into joining uncertified Digital Identity Service Provider (IDSP) schemes that are used to complete verification checks on their behalf, it has been claimed.

Research from Credas Technologies reveals non-certified providers are copying and mimicking the language and rhetoric used in the government’s Digital Identity Trust Framework, giving the impression to estate and letting agents that their products are indeed government certified when they are not.

VERIFICATION

The government published the UK Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF) in December 2021 so businesses such as estate and letting agents could use IDSPs to complete identity verification checks on their behalf.

The guidance sets out exactly how IDSPs can become certified to complete ID checks for the Right to Work, Right to Rent, and DBS schemes and also offers a set of rules that companies must agree to follow.

But there are also a number of commercial ‘schemes’ that are not certified under the DIATF, even if some of the IDSPs within the scheme are.

CERTIFIED

The government provides a live list of certified IDSPs and if a company or scheme does not appear on this list, it is not certified.

Tim Barnett, Chief Executive of Credas Technologies, says: “It’s vital that agents and landlords alike are fully aware of just who is, and who is not, officially UK Government certified before they instruct an IDSP.

“Unfortunately, in recent months we have witnessed real confusion amongst many estate and letting agents between authentic UK Government certification and those being offered by some private companies that hold themselves out to be government certified but are not.”