Stolen passports - why?
Mar 14, 2015 | 11:46 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 1,236
Stolen passports - why?
Reading many musings from tourists, there is a lot of reports of passports being stolen from people.
Why? Why would anyone steal a passport? Especially new biometric ones or even plain old ones with picture printed on the page?
Why? Why would anyone steal a passport? Especially new biometric ones or even plain old ones with picture printed on the page?
Mar 14, 2015 | 2:36 pm
#3
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Scarborough, Canada
Posts: 614
anyone traveling on the forged, new biometric passport of someone else is just asking for trouble......how do they expect to clear immigration at origin/destination is just beyond me.......there are so many "document checks" at the gate for UK/Canada/USA that it's impossible to think anyone will get through..
Mar 14, 2015 | 2:53 pm
#5
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Scarborough, Canada
Posts: 614
ya stolen passports should be useless these days. Even most of the visas issued these days have photos on them too...so it's pointless unless the person really resembles the passport holder and can fool the id/gate checkers
Mar 14, 2015 | 3:09 pm
#6
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: MUC
Programs: Compulsory Traveller
Posts: 321
Passports can be manipulated - even biometric ones. There's money to be made with forged documents, so there are professionals in this business. The passports get better, the forgers get better.
Mar 14, 2015 | 5:15 pm
#8
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: LHR- ish
Programs: MUCCI, BA Blue
Posts: 4,295
I suppose you might not need to fool the biometric checkers. If you can get onto a flight to a country where you are planning to claim asylum it won't necessarily matter that the passport won't work when you get there
Mar 14, 2015 | 10:03 pm
#9
Join Date: Nov 2008
Programs: SAS *G
Posts: 473
I've even heard of foreigners here in Bangkok selling their own passports to the black market guys and then going to their embassy to get a new passport. Rinse and repeat.
(Cash for selling new biometric EU passport) >> (cost of getting a new passport)
Interesting business.
Mar 15, 2015 | 3:13 am
#11
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: YUL
Programs: Aeroplan
Posts: 446
Mar 15, 2015 | 3:18 am
#12
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: NRT / HND
Programs: AA EXP, A3 Gold, Former UA 1K
Posts: 6,365
I think too a lot of people don't really look the same after 10 years, the validity of many western countries' passports. Someone who looks similar could pass muster in many places. Hell, I've crossed a number of borders where they either don't look or barely look at my photo, both in first and third world countries.
In airports, with airline employees, I rarely notice them comparing the picture, usually it's verifying names match to the boarding pass. The one place I have noticed them doing a photo comparison about 100% of the time is Chinese immigration.
In airports, with airline employees, I rarely notice them comparing the picture, usually it's verifying names match to the boarding pass. The one place I have noticed them doing a photo comparison about 100% of the time is Chinese immigration.
Mar 16, 2015 | 5:53 am
#14
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: MEL
Programs: DL, QF, QR Silver, Bonvoy Lifetime Gold
Posts: 7,315
Passports are generally recognized as a form of ID, so you can do a LOT within one country with a stolen passport. While it may be harder (though CLEARLY not impossible) to cross borders with a stolen passport, it can be very useful for various reasons (e.g. someone who is on the run and does not want to get caught, open a bank account, etc.) LOTS of fraud happens today due to stolen passports.