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We've been asked a few times (more frequently now) to confirm or undertake that we have verified our client's identity. We tell the other side to get stuffed.

Firstly, what does "verify identity" actually mean? It' such a nebulous concept that it would be madness to agree to do it. Secondly, why should I take personal responsibility for losses to third parties in circumstances when *I* have been duped?

For example, man comes in with a sale and says he is Richard Marx, to sell his home 1 Main Street, Hazard. He brings a passport with the name Richard Marx, and the mugshot in the passport looks quite like the fella in the office.

But it turns out it is a different Richard Marx whose father had died and in respect of which the grant of probate was issued. Is that my fault?

Or if Richard Marx is the correct Richard Marx, but it was not him entitled to the grant in the first place. Or if Richard Marx had changed his name and produced a deed poll to prove it and he is now Karl Marx, but it turns out that his former colleague from prison Friedrich Engels had actually owned the property freehold as to which Karl had granted himself a 999 year lease, etc.