I remember the days as a kid travelling with a passport that had a photo inserted. This was in the early-2000s. Then during the mid-noughties, countries started introducing bio-metric passports for citizens. There was a German security expert Lukas Grunwald who said that these can be hacked and the data on the bio-metric chip cloned
However, it seems that this hasn’t been the case. I always use to hear about people ordering fake passports and see many caught on those border security shows. I would think that now, it’s nearly downright impossible to do and get away with it.
There are two general ways that someone can have a fraudulent identity when travelling. One is a fake passport and another is a fraudulently used passport. The former is one that is a counterfeit document and resembles the passport of a nation. The latter is a genuine passport but is not issued to the individual whom is travelling. They are usually stolen and the person buying it is a ‘look-a-like’.
Now with everything on a passport being printed using lasers (no photos inserted) and photo/fingerprint data being added on the bio-metric chip so border guards can verify it against a traveler, fake passports seem to be a thing of the past. Maybe only secret services like the Mossad could replicate a convincing one.
Would I be right in saying that the only stolen genuine passports that resemble the person it doesn’t belong to are the ones used? I remember back when MH370 crashed in March 2014, there were suspicions that two travelers were terrorists, but it turned out they were using stolen passports belonging to someone else.
It’s certainly going to be harder to make an actual fake passport now. But of course laser printers and RFID chip programmers and whatever are possible to buy even if you’re not a government.
It also maybe depends on where you’re traveling to. There may be some countries that don’t have a real-time computer system that verifies the passport with the issuing nation? If you enter through a minor port rather than through a major international airport that probably helps.
This guy has been in prison in Canada for years because he will not reveal his identity. About the only thing known about him is that the name on his passport matches a fake passport made in Paris.
I knew a guy in high school that was busted for using a passport to buy beer. I don’t remember if it was stolen or forged or what but kind of funny that the FBI and State Department got involved with an underaged alcohol case.
Yea. I wondered that too. I was always stunned by how people could use a fake ID and not get caught but using a fake passport was a big no-no.
The ID’s for alcohol are usually state-issued identity documents and thus, when a teen/under 21 adult is caught with them, the most they’ll face is a misdemeanor.
However, passports are issues by the State Department which is a federal organisation and thus counterfeiting that is considered a federal offense. Way more serious and lands you in trouble.
That’s something I’ve always wondered - to what extent is the passport data validated against the issuing country. Obviously it can be done; but does, for example, Rwanda (to pick a small less industrialized country) issue fully computerized passports and have an online verification system? Of course, unless you are a citizen of a select group of modernized countries, your passport was probably scanned at the US embassy to get an entry visa to the USA which you need before boarding a plane from, say, Rwanda.
If you have the resources of a large organization behind you, you can fake passports. Recall about 10 years ago, Mossad agents (allegedly) used fake passports to enter the UAE and assassinate a Palestinian big shot. But if I recall the news stories, they cloned at least one real passport and substituted fairly generic looking photos - thus implying that a fictitious name no longer works. The British citizen whose name was used was a little upset, claiming he had nothing to do with this. In previous decades, Israel has gotten a strongly worded protest from Canada when agents used (fake) Canadian passports, since the last thing Canadians need abroad is the suspicion that they are deadly agents of a foreign power.
But I’m assuming the days of a guy in a back room in Amsterdam making fake passports that will pass modern border scans is long gone. (I always wonder, too - most passports have a 10-year lifetime. When Bourne or some agent pulls their emergency stash of assorted passports out of the floorboards, is it less than 10 years old?) Also, except for the NAFTA countries, most entrants to the USA (and many other countries) require fingerprints and photos on entry; anonymity will certainly be compromised at that point. Most western countries require some form of pre-authorization online so passport information is part of the flight manifest; etc. This suggests that discrepancies will be caught eventually. I assume using this data for flagging names that entered but did not leave on schedule will be a feature soon if it is not already.