Free App confirms cards are 100% genuine

CitizenCard has launched a new app, available free from Apple and Google Play Stores, that checks if a PASS (Proof of Age Standards Scheme) card is genuine.

The app has already carried out more than 58,000 checks and has successfully validated 65% of the cards presented.

18,000 cards have been confirmed as fake so the app enables licensees and doorstaff to remove these cards from circulation.

The app cannot validate all PASS cards (for now, Young Scot and Totum NUS cards are not participating in the app) but it does confirm if a card appears to be one of these brands.

Bill Donne from Reading Pubwatch reports that Reading NTE and operators support the app "as it is easy to use and works as a second check on the cards".

Former police officer Mark Worthington, who sits on East Midlands Pubwatch, advises festival bar managers to download the app this summer.

The vast majority of PASS cards issued in England and Wales can be validated by the app, including CitizenCards, Post Office PASS cards, MyIDCards – and soon OneID4U cards too.

The app's splashscreen will soon change to list the participating brands and users then select the brand they are checking:

Andrew Chevis, CitizenCard's CEO, says the app is all part of reassuring the trade that PASS cards can be trusted as a valid photo-ID alongside passports and driving licences.

The Home Office recognizes CitizenCards as a valid photo-ID for voting at future elections from May 2023.

To download the app go to Get the Verify app page.