Glossary Item Box

Government Gateway 2.2.0 (MR-01) ISV Developer Help (Doc Version 06/03/08) | Send comments on this topic.

# Know Facts

# Why are Known Facts Required?

An enrolment links a credential to a user’s account (or information) within the service.

However, the name associated with the credential cannot be used to make this connection because:

- For a User ID/password type credential the user chooses the name they want. So they might not register their full name (in fact they can use any name), or they could impersonate someone else by registering that person’s name.
- The corresponding name used in the service may be slightly different from the credential’s name.
- Their name may not be unique within the service’s database.

The solution is to ask the credential some questions, called known facts, which only they are likely to know. For example, for the Inland Revenue Self Assessment service, they are asked to enter their UTR (Unique Tax Reference), NINo (National Insurance Number) and Post code. The answers are then used to identify the corresponding user's account.

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