Abstract: A system and method for verifying a user of an online or web service. According to an embodiment, a web page is provided to user for capturing an image of the user together with an embedded verification code. The captured image is provided to a verifier agent and the embedded verification code is compared to an original verification code associated with the user. If there is a match, the user is verified and an account can be created for the user. If there is no match, then the user can be rejected or the verification can be escalated to review by a supervisory agent. According to an embodiment, the embedded verification code comprises a visual representation of the code on a substrate that has been mechanically manipulated.