Instructure Partners With Veriff to Give Institutions a New Defense Against Rising Credential Fraud

Identity verification built into the world's largest academic credential network, with registrars keeping final say over every order

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Instructure, the leading learning ecosystem and maker of Canvas LMS, today announced a partnership with Veriff, a global identity verification provider, to build identity verification directly into Parchment by Instructure Transcript Services. The new capability allows institutions to require learners to verify their identity before a transcript request is fulfilled. Parchment runs the largest academic credential network in the world, connecting more than 6,200 colleges and universities with 6,700 K-12 schools and districts, and has exchanged more than 165 million credentials. Verification now happens inside that network, at the point where the credential is issued. The capability is currently being piloted with a small group of higher education institutions, with general availability planned for November 2026 in the United States.

Fraud is outpacing manual review
"Ghost student" schemes cost U.S. community colleges $180 million in a single year, according to Equifax, citing U.S. Department of Education findings. Fraudsters enroll under stolen or fabricated identities, collect financial aid and disappear. These bad actors then leverage academic records in their scheme by ordering transcripts under someone else's name, then use them to apply for admission and aid at other institutions.             

AI tools have made the problem worse by lowering the cost of producing convincing fake documents and scaling fraudulent requests. Many registrars have responded the only way they could, by reviewing orders one at a time. That work is slow, expensive and hard to sustain.

"Fraud is evolving faster than the legacy systems that most institutions rely on were built to handle," said Brian Cully, senior vice president of finance and strategy at Instructure. "Registrars are spending hours reviewing orders by hand because they have no scalable way to confirm the person behind an account is real. With Parchment, that confirmation becomes part of the workflow itself, running inside the same trusted network they already use to send credentials. Institutions get proof that credential submissions are legitimate, and learners still get their transcripts fast."

How identity verification works in Parchment
Institutions turn on identity verification at the account level. Setup and administration happen inside Parchment, in the same system where registrars already process orders. When a learner creates an account or places an order, Veriff checks a government-issued ID against a live selfie. Parchment assigns a verification status and a confidence score, then routes the order. Trusted orders are approved automatically. Suspicious orders are held for staff review. Learners who sign in through single sign-on or an institution-issued token are verified automatically and skip the extra step.

Veriff supports more than 12,500 document types from over 230 countries and territories, including passports, national ID cards, driver's licenses and residence permits. Parchment stores verification status and metadata only. It does not store biometric data. Institutions get the proof they need to act on an order while the sensitive images stay out of their systems.

Registrars maintain final say over every approval. Parchment flags and routes orders against the thresholds an institution sets, and institution staff decide what happens to anything held for review. Institutions can block fraudulent orders at registration, before staff spends hours investigating them after the fact.

Verification that protects access
Identity verification in Parchment lets an institution raise its defenses without raising barriers for the learners it exists to serve. Every friction point meant to stop fraud carries a risk of excluding a real student. Learners who cannot produce a government-issued ID can defer verification, and orders that fall short of an institution's confidence threshold route to human review instead of automatic denial. Institutions set their own thresholds and document the policy behind them.

"A transcript is a key to money, admission and employment, which is exactly why fraudsters have started going after them," said Kaarel Kotkas, Founder and CEO of Veriff. "The right place to stop that is at the moment the credential changes hands. Instructure connects learners from the classroom through to the workforce, so verifying identity inside Parchment protects the whole chain rather than one institution at a time."

Availability
Identity Verification for Parchment Transcript Services entered a pilot program in August 2026. General availability is planned for November 2026 in the United States. A later phase is expected to add step-up verification for high-risk account changes such as name and date of birth updates.

Instructure leaders Brian Cully, Kristie Lindell and Steve Proud discussed how fraud patterns are changing across education, and what institutions can do about them, in the webinar The Growing Fraud Threat in Education: Risks, Responses, and Real Solutions, available on demand.

About Instructure
Instructure is shaping the future of learning by delivering a future-ready ecosystem that helps learners thrive in tomorrow's landscape. Our vision is to drive a future where education technology seamlessly amplifies human potential, empowering people to excel in a perpetually changing world. Instructure is setting potential in motion by connecting educators, institutions and learners across K–12, higher education and the workforce — enhancing experiences at every age, every stage and every pivotal transition. Discover more at Instructure.com.

About Veriff
Veriff is a global AI-native identity platform that helps organizations build trust online. Leading companies across financial services, marketplaces, mobility, gig economy, and other digital sectors rely on Veriff's technology to stay compliant, prevent fraud, protect users, and scale globally.

Veriff's trust infrastructure supports the full customer journey, from verification to ongoing authentication and fraud prevention, with the least friction for honest people. Built for global scale, Veriff helps businesses expand across borders without the complexity of managing identity verification, compliance, and fraud in multiple markets – creating a single source of truth for trusted identities.

CONTACT
Brian Watkins
Corporate Communications
Instructure
(801) 658-7525

SOURCE Instructure