Being found in possession of a fake passport is considered a serious felony in almost every country and is punishable by imprisonment and heavy fines. But that doesn’t stop miscreants from forging and procuring them. The ability to detect fake passports and ID cards is a specialized skill set, which requires training and specific equipment. However, there are some telltale signs which can be easily spotted even by untutored eyes, but that is only possible where the level of forgery isn’t that high! What piques our curiosity is how do forgers actually go about creating a fake passport? Let me enlighten you with that.
1) The most difficult to spot fake passports are usually those genuine and valid passports which have gone under extensive manipulation to customize them for the intended miscreant. These passports are procured by stealing or purchased from a collaborator. Once obtained, the picture and biographical data is altered. Usually, the way to detect such passports is to check the laminate for embossed security images. Most immigration check counters are equipped with Ultra violet lamps, magnifying glasses and have specimen copies of real passports for comparison.
2) Some forgers go to great lengths to ensure that the authenticity of their forged passport is impeccable. This includes hoodwinking the issuing authority by submitting false identity documents such as birth certificates etc. Birth certificates in most countries are provided by a number of sources like state authorities, hospitals and religious institutions. There’s no distinguishable aspect to them like fingerprint or a photo and hence is a gaping loophole when it comes to establishing someone’s identity. When a passport is issued based on false documents, it’s almost impossible to identify, as it is the real deal.
3) Internet savvy forgers have various convincing ways to coax the requisite details of a passport from an unsuspecting victim. These mostly involve free immigration scams where the victims are convinced that they’ve won free visa to a foreign country. The counterfeiters then proceed with asking for scanned copy of the passport so that the visa can be processed. Once a victim sends them the scanned copy, his/her identity is stolen and its credentials are used to forge a passport for someone else.
The technology of counterfeiting passports is constantly evolving and counterfeiters are finding new, innovative and hard to detect devious ways of furthering their trade. To counter this, governments have adopted various stringent methods such as computerizing the entire passport issuance procedure. This allows them to run a background check on suspicious looking passports. The immigration control personnel are being provided intense training via multimillion dollar programs that teach them to readily spot a fake passport.
