Abstract: A system for confirming the identity of an individual presenting an identification card includes a card reader, an associated central processing unit, a preselected feature template library associated with the central processing unit, a scanner for scanning preselected portions of an epidermis, such as a fingerprint, RAM storage means operatively associated with the central processing unit and the scanner, a communication interface such as a modem communicating with a remote site, and an output display indicating the identifier correlation. This invention provides an improved method of verifying that a card holder is the card owner by matching the image of the card holder's fingerprint to the unique code which has been assigned to the card owner and encoded on the card's magnetic strip, which requires only a relatively small amount of data to perform identification, making it possible to use low cost, low density encoding methods including bar code and magnetic strip.