Detect tampered and deepfake Nigeria NIN slip / e-ID

What a genuine NIN slip contains

The NIN is an eleven-digit number printed at the top left of the slip, with surname, first name, middle name, date of birth, gender, nationality, and photograph around it. The improved slip carries a scannable code, and the e-ID card adds a machine-readable zone and a QR code that can encode the number without printing it visibly.

A slip downloaded from the NIMC portal and printed is a legitimate printout, and the plain slip, improved slip, and card all coexist. A virtual NIN is a separate sixteen-character token and is not the NIN itself, so a document presenting one as the number is inconsistent. No public check-digit rule is documented, so the checks rest on length, character type, and agreement with the rest of the page.

How NIN slip forgeries are made

• Number structure

  The NIN is eleven digits and nothing else. A number with letters, a wrong length, or a sixteen-character virtual NIN printed where the NIN belongs fails at the structural level.

• Variant conformance

  The plain slip, improved slip, and e-ID card each have their own layout. A slip showing card-only elements, or a card missing the machine-readable zone its variant carries, signals assembly.

• Barcode and QR agreement

  Where the code on an improved slip or card can be decoded, its payload should agree with the printed name and date of birth. A disagreement points to edited print around a genuine code.

• Field and font consistency

  Edited names and birth dates leave baseline shifts, font substitutions, and spacing breaks against the rest of the slip. Uniform issued print makes the edited line stand out.

• Photograph region

  Portrait swaps show cut-line edges, resolution steps, or a compression history that differs from the surrounding page.

What TamperCheck checks on a NIN slip

TamperCheck runs 200+ forensic checks across three layers and returns a risk score from 0 to 100 with plain-English findings tied to specific regions of the document. These three carry the most weight on this document class.

• Machine-readable zone validation

  Check digits across every MRZ field are recomputed, and the encoded name, number, and dates are compared against the values printed on the face of the document. Forgers routinely update one and forget the other.

• Portrait substitution and face-swap analysis

  The document is isolated from whatever it was photographed on, then the portrait region is assessed against the card surface around it. A pasted or generated face rarely matches the substrate it was placed onto.

• Barcode and QR payload comparison

  Encoded payloads are decoded and compared against the human-readable values printed alongside them. Editing the visible text without re-encoding the barcode is a common and highly detectable mistake.

• And many more checks

  The three above are the layers that carry the most weight on a NIN slip. Every upload runs the full suite of 200+ checks regardless of document class, spanning file structure and metadata, pixel-level forensics, font and text rendering, optical and print characteristics, provenance signals, AI-generation signatures, and many more checks.

Who verifies a NIN slip, and why

Nigerian banks, fintechs, and telcos. In each case the document is being used to unlock money, access, or a legal status, which is exactly what makes it worth forging.

How to verify a NIN slip in 4 steps

1. 1

   Capture the whole slip or card

   Photograph or export the document flat at full resolution so the number, barcode, and any machine-readable zone survive close analysis.

2. 2

   Check the number

   Confirm the NIN is exactly eleven digits with no letters, and that it is not a sixteen-character virtual NIN.

3. 3

   Match the variant

   Decide whether the document is a slip, improved slip, or card, and confirm its layout and machine-readable elements fit that variant.

4. 4

   Run a forensic check on the file

   The number and the layout carry the structural story, and the print carries the edit history. TamperCheck runs 200+ forensic checks including NIN structure checks and patch detection, returning a risk score from 0 to 100 with findings tied to specific regions of the image.

Frequently asked questions