1. An electronic system for the processing of data to verify the identity of an individual, comprising: means for preauthorizing a group of customers by storing an authorized version of biometric data and an authorized version of non-biometric data that may be used to verify the identity of individual customers; means for obtaining data from the person of an individual who wishes to engage in a transaction, the data including test biometric data and test non-biometric data that may be used to identify the individual; and means for transmitting the data to a central agency; the central agency being provided with means for processing the data to determine whether the individual is also a preapproved customer, wherein the manner of processing at least includes comparing the test biometric data against the authorized version of biometric data such that a comparison match outcome is associated with recognition of the individual as a customer and a comparison non-match outcome is associated with nonrecognition of the individual as a customer; means for providing notification of the comparison match outcome; and a fraud database including at least one of hardware and circuitry, the fraud database containing historical biometric data which is associated with known or suspected instances of past fraud and means for comparing the test biometric data against the historical biometric data on a transaction specific basis to obtain a comparison outcome wherein a comparison match is associated with means for providing notice that the test biometric data is associated with an instance of past fraud from a person who is not a preauthorized customer but who is known to have previously committed fraud.