A method for verifying the identity of an individual with a mobile wireless handheld device equipped with at least one camera, a graphical display, a wireless communication adapter, and a verification mobile application, comprising the steps of: - capturing a video of a biometric attribute of the individual through said camera of said mobile device during a self-scanning movement of the individual with said mobile device with respect to said biometric attribute; - reconstructing with said mobile device in real-time a 3D model of the individual's biometric attribute from the video captured, where the 3D model contains shapes and/or textures, forming thereby a reconstructed 3D model; - comparing said reconstructed 3D model with a reference 3D model of said biometric attribute of the same individual, this reference 3D model containing shapes and/or textures, stored in either said mobile device or a remote enrolment database following a previous enrolment phase of said individual with the same mobile device, thereby providing a detailed comparison result, wherein - said self-scanning movement is a panning movement; and - depending on detected mobile device CPU performance characteristics and wireless connection bandwidth, the verification mobile application automatically: a) reconstructs a 3D model from a video captured by the camera, extracting shapes and textures or a subset of shapes and textures of the scanned biometric attribute and compares the 3D model to the 3D reference model stored in the individual's mobile device, or b) reconstructs a 3D model from a video captured by the camera, extracting shapes and textures or a subset of shapes and textures of the scanned biometric attribute and sends the 3D model to the identity verification server with the entire video sequence or a set of selected video sequences, where the video sequences have been qualitatively pre-qualified in term of 3D model extraction, or c) reconstructs a partial 3D model from a video captured, partially extracting shapes and/or textures or a subset of partial shapes and/or textures of the scanned biometric attribute and sends the partial 3D model to the identity verification server with the entire video sequence or a set of selected video frames, where the video sequences have been qualitatively pre-qualified in term of 3D model extraction. - capturing a video of a biometric attribute of the individual through said camera of said mobile device during a self-scanning movement of the individual with said mobile device with respect to said biometric attribute; - reconstructing with said mobile device in real-time a 3D model of the individual's biometric attribute from the video captured, where the 3D model contains shapes and/or textures, forming thereby a reconstructed 3D model; - comparing said reconstructed 3D model with a reference 3D model of said biometric attribute of the same individual, this reference 3D model containing shapes and/or textures, stored in either said mobile device or a remote enrolment database following a previous enrolment phase of said individual with the same mobile device, thereby providing a detailed comparison result, - said self-scanning movement is a panning movement; and - depending on detected mobile device CPU performance characteristics and wireless connection bandwidth, the verification mobile application automatically: a) reconstructs a 3D model from a video captured by the camera, extracting shapes and textures or a subset of shapes and textures of the scanned biometric attribute and compares the 3D model to the 3D reference model stored in the individual's mobile device, or b) reconstructs a 3D model from a video captured by the camera, extracting shapes and textures or a subset of shapes and textures of the scanned biometric attribute and sends the 3D model to the identity verification server with the entire video sequence or a set of selected video sequences, where the video sequences have been qualitatively pre-qualified in term of 3D model extraction, or c) reconstructs a partial 3D model from a video captured, partially extracting shapes and/or textures or a subset of partial shapes and/or textures of the scanned biometric attribute and sends the partial 3D model to the identity verification server with the entire video sequence or a set of selected video frames, where the video sequences have been qualitatively pre-qualified in term of 3D model extraction. a) reconstructs a 3D model from a video captured by the camera, extracting shapes and textures or a subset of shapes and textures of the scanned biometric attribute and compares the 3D model to the 3D reference model stored in the individual's mobile device, or b) reconstructs a 3D model from a video captured by the camera, extracting shapes and textures or a subset of shapes and textures of the scanned biometric attribute and sends the 3D model to the identity verification server with the entire video sequence or a set of selected video sequences, where the video sequences have been qualitatively pre-qualified in term of 3D model extraction, or c) reconstructs a partial 3D model from a video captured, partially extracting shapes and/or textures or a subset of partial shapes and/or textures of the scanned biometric attribute and sends the partial 3D model to the identity verification server with the entire video sequence or a set of selected video frames, where the video sequences have been qualitatively pre-qualified in term of 3D model extraction.