Identity thieves and impersonators thrive on publicly available personal information and data pilfering. Now that information, along with some bogus data on would-be fraud victims, is being used against the thieves in an identity verification scheme from StrikeForce Technologies.

StrikeForce markets its VerifyID "quiz" to organizations that take applications for financial and other services over the Internet. Founder and Executive Vice President George Waller said that VerifyID goes beyond the usual name, address, and phone number to verify applicants' identities. It asks as many as nine questions derived from more than 22 billion public records -- and some bogus information. "We ask red herring questions -- we make up information and ask about information only the user would know," Waller said. "The engine mixes the answers and data and asks in a way only the true user would be able to answer."