There are a range of counterfeit educational certificates circulating in India and quick response codes could combat this trend.
Aside from the primary use for QR codes, which is in mobile marketing, these two dimensional barcodes have also found their way into a range of different verification processes that have given consumers and businesses, alike, the opportunity to use their smartphones and tablets to ensure that a product or document is the genuine article.
As counterfeit products and documentation become more sophisticated, a simple verification solution is needed.
Among the latest uses for QR codes in this category have to do with the creation of unique barcodes that are applied to educational certificates – such as diplomas – that allow someone viewing the document to be able to scan it and check its authenticity, including the student’s name, registration number, and handful of other relevant details. Since quick response codes can easily be read by nearly any smartphone with a camera feature and the right free app, this presents quite a cost effective and simple solution to the problem.
These unbreakable unique QR codes let people make sure that what they see on the paper is the genuine article.
Authenticate, a company based in Singapore, has started producing just this type of unbreakable quick response code. Though they have previously been used exclusively for advertising, the software from that company is now being seen for a much greater potential than the marketing category.
A recent survey conducted by First Advantage on candidate background discrepancies showed that in India, alone, there are an estimated 2,500 fake universities and 7,500 artificial companies that exist and that are being used on the resumes of applicants for employment positions. India currently ranks as the country with the highest number of inconsistencies in employment related data among all of the nations that were considered in the survey. The data from that global research suggested that in 2013, more than 50 percent of male job applicants had forged their previous job experience certificates.
By using the software from Authenticate, a secure, two dimensional QR code is generated. It contains the essential data from the employment documentation in an encrypted form so that it can be read by any smart mobile device. This allows for instant verification for document validation.
