WASHINGTON, D.C. , April 12, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Identity thieves, beware. Washington Research Associates, Inc. (WRA) has recently unveiled its new IdentiChek(TM) product, which harnesses the power of the Internet to provide the best, most reliable "I.D. card" so far available anywhere.
"Americans have long been accustomed to using their drivers licenses for identification purposes," said company director Warren Ryan. "But drivers licenses are easily forged, and in any case are useless in verifying your identity to someone who is not present -- for example, someone you are dealing with via the Internet or by phone. IdentiChek(TM) provides an online, password-protected I.D. card, which can be used in email, on resumes, on credit applications, in correspondence of all kinds, both online and off-line. Accordingly, IdentiChek(TM) fills a huge unmet need in both personal and business communications as a way to prove to others that you are who you say you are."
Subscribers to the IdentiChek(TM) service fill out an Application Form on the company's website, at http://www.IdentiChek.com. Then a Washington Research Associates Inc staff person contacts them by telephone and asks a series of questions about their backgrounds which only they can answer. Security experts consider this "interactive" approach to be one of the best possible ways to verify someone's identity. Personal photos and other documentation arealso required. Finally, WRA runs a criminal background check and a terrorist watch list check on all applicants.
Successful applicants then receive their own online IdentiChek(TM) Online Certificate, which is in unalterable PDF format and password protected if they wish. A sample IdentiChek(TM) Online Certificate can be viewed at: http://www.IdentiChek.com/certificates/john_doe.pdf (Note: password protection disabled.) Successful applicants also receive an IdentiChek(TM) emblem which they can place in their emails or on their web sites, which is hyperlinked to their IdentiChek(TM) Online Certificates.
"In post-9/11 America there's a tremendous need for an identity verification system that works," said Ryan. "Terrorism is a horrible threat to our society and IdentiChek(TM) is one more new tool to make it harder for terrorists to hide among us, using false identities. In addition, IdentiChek(TM) will enable the rest of us to gain the trust we need in our personal and business relationships, while at the same time protecting our identities from identity thieves."