South African telecoms firm MTN plans to use fingerprint biometrics to fight identity theft.MTN South Africa is strengthening its security with the biometric system ahead of the busy festive season, when crime rises.”The biometrics will be used to authenticate the identity of post-paid subscribers when they undertake a range of transactions, including applying for a new contract or an additional Sim, performing an upgrade or Sim swap, and loading of chargeable value-added services,” MTN said in a statement on Wednesday.”Furthermore, the system links to the credit bureaus' expansive consumer database and can easily match customer's fingerprints with their identity number.”The company's corporate affairs executive, Jacqui O'Sullivan, said: “So many South Africans have become victims of identity theft and a first stop for these criminals is often the retail environment. Our fingerprint biometric solution will go a long way in enhancing the experience of our customers and protecting subscribers from the scourge of identity theft.”The fingerprint biometric system is being rolled out to all MTN stores and plans are in place to deploy this solution to the sales channels as well, O'Sullivan said.
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