AT&T and First Advantage’s Digital Identity Partnership: Helping to Protect People, Managing Risk

In a world where hiring sometimes no longer requires handshakes or in-person interviews, the question of trust has become more complex — and more critical — than even before. For AT&T, a company that interacts with customers in some of the most personal spaces imaginable — homes and retail stores — trust isn’t optional. It’s the foundation of their business.

AT&T, a global leader in telecommunications, has embraced the shift to a more remote-based world with strategic foresight. AT&T has adopted advanced digital identity solutions from First Advantage to help strengthen its hiring process, safeguard its reputation, and protect the trust of customers.

About AT&T

As the largest telecommunications provider in the US, AT&T is in the business of connecting people. Providing phone and internet services to millions of users gives the company access to vast amounts of sensitive personal information.

In addition, AT&T sales representatives and technicians don’t exclusively engage with customers online or on the phone. Often, they work in clients’ houses or stores. This means that earning and maintaining a high degree of trust is crucial.

Identity fraud is surging worldwide, driven by new technologies that allow the creation of deeply convincing fake ID documents and deepfakes. Telecommunications providers like AT&T make appealing targets for fraudsters on account of their access to personal data and even the inside of their customers’ homes.

The Challenges

Remote hiring has opened the door to new possibilities — and new risks. As AT&T has expanded its workforce globally, they needed a better way to check that every candidate was truly who they claimed to be. The rise of document fraud and AI-generated deepfakes made an identity-first solution more critical — and more complicated — than ever before. “We want to ensure we have the right people entering your homes and representing AT&T in any fashion or role that we have them in,” said Jeff Ellis, a senior leader on AT&T. “It’s about eliminating risk for our customers.”

AT&T began encountering increasingly sophisticated fraud, from falsified documents to impersonation attempts, and so they decided that they needed a more advanced, scalable way to verify identities without compromising speed.

The rise of AI-generated fraud and deepfake technologies has made traditional digital identity methods less effective. AT&T has encountered multiple attempts to deceive their systems, including falsified documents and impersonation.

“We’ve had people create fake documents or even swap IDs between parents and children with the same names to make it more challenging to find past criminal records history,” Jeff explained. “First Advantage’s digital identity tools allowed us to flag these attempts before they escalated.”

The Solution

To address these evolving risks, AT&T became an early adopter of First Advantage’s multi-layered digital identity solution. The partnership has transformed their hiring process by enabling the team to be alerted to discrepancies that may suggest fraudulent documents were being submitted, spot impersonators, and to verify identities with confidence.

“We’ve been early adopters of First Advantage’s identity services, and it’s been game-changing,” Jeff said. “We’re in the business of eliminating risk for our clients. That means making sure the right people represent us, from how they interact to how they gain access.”

By integrating these tools early in the hiring process, First Advantage was able to assist AT&T’s processes and policies to prevent bad actors from moving forward, in turn protecting its workforce, customers, and brand reputation from the very start.

First Advantage’s digital identity methods helped AT&T go beyond surface-level checks, using biometric data, liveness detection, and document authentication to verify identities.

Key Results

• AT&T’s review rate increased by 22% after adding digital identity into all screening packages.
• Prevented potentially fraudulent hires through advanced document authentication
• Detected possible impersonation schemes involving shared names or swapped IDs
• Built deeper client confidence in AT&T’s hiring integrity
• Enhanced global scalability
• Digital Identity: A Brief Overview

First Advantage’s digital identity solution leverages multiple layers of analysis to spot discrepancies, allowing employers to flag potential identity fraud before the background check even begins.

• Document Review Technology: Our technology compares candidates’ IDs to a database of hundreds of standard government-issue exemplars in order to spot potentially counterfeit documents.
• Liveness Detection with Facial Recognition: Candidates are asked to provide a real-time selfie photo, which is matched to their government-issued photo ID. Dynamic facial recognition and movement analysis tools are used to help spot discrepancies and deep fakes.
• Telecom and Device: Device- and telecom-based data, including device location, SSN, IP address, and more are used in the digital identity process.
• Biographic Data: Personal information, such as name and address, and SSN is compared to records held by the credit bureaus.

In the event of a discrepancy, digital identity provides visibility on the specifics to help employers make informed decisions.

Closing Thoughts

Any organization operating at scale — or in environments requiring trust, access to sensitive information, and/or in-person access — can benefit from modern digital identity services. AT&T’s approach offers a blueprint: pair high expectations with high-tech solutions to stay ahead of today’s fraud risk with greater confidence.

The key takeaway? Modern hiring requires modern safeguards. Implementing advanced multi-layered digital identity isn’t just about technology; it’s about implementing strategies to address the goals of protecting people, upholding values, and building sustainable trust.