CHENNAI: The state registration department has procured 1,164 state-of-the-art level 1 fingerprint scanners to safeguard against fraudulent land registrations using cloned fingerprints. It has also taken measures to prevent financial fraud through Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) by stealing fingerprints from sale deeds.
Across the state every day, on average, 15,000 documents are registered and 50,000 fingerprints are authenticated in the 582 sub-registrar offices under the state registration department. The department has been using fingerprint scanners along with Aadhaar authentication and EKYC while registering documents. “If a person purchases a property, his/her fingerprint is registered.
Years later, when he/she approaches the department to register the sale of the same property, the fingerprints will be verified. For those whose fingerprints are not registered, Aadhaar verification will be done,” said a senior registration department officials.
The department had been using Level 0 scanners. To enhance security levels of fingerprint-based authentication transactions, UIDAI made it mandatory to use L1 compliant fingerprint authentication registered devices in the Aadhaar authentication ecosystem. “We have procured the machines and distributed them to all the sub-registrar offices.
The L1 scanners have better encryption and are secure. The important aspect is the fingerprint liveliness security feature. This will reveal if the fingerprint has been taken from a person who is alive or cloned,” he said.
Instances of land being registration using cloned fingerprints had been reported in other states, he said. “The fingerprints stolen from different data are used to make copies, often using silicone. These are then used to register documents. Though this crime has not been reported in Tamil Nadu so far, we have to secure ourselves,” he added.
To prevent the theft of fingerprints, Aadhaar, and PAN card data from documents, the registration department has started masking it before handing them over to the seller/buyer. “This will deter fraudsters from stealing the fingerprints and using them to swindle money through AEPS,” the official said.
Property consultants point out that this a good move. “This will prevent registration of unclaimed property using forged documents. This will protect buyers, but this should be monitored properly,” said S Ramprabhu, CMDA and DTCP committee chairman, Builders Association of India (BAI)
