How to Forge a Passport
An abbreviated translation from the New York Times.
Alan Boukard unfolds the passport and examines it under ultraviolet radiation. The background image of the Royal Palace of Belgium, printed in faint color on the page, disappears. "See?" he exclaims. He takes another Belgian passport and holds it under special lighting. The design on this passport is printed with special ink, which makes it glow brightly. “The first passport is forged,” he issues his conclusion.
Boukard heads the anti-fraud division of the Belgian Federal Police. Every few minutes in his office there are calls from police officers from around the world, where he is asked to verify the authenticity of a Belgian passport that arouses suspicion.
In verifying the authenticity of passports, Boukard uses the database "Braingate", which is owned by the Belgian police, which contains data on 1.4 million stolen passports around the world.
For example, recently in Portugal, two citizens of Sri Lanka were detained, traveling with fake Belgian passports, or rather with stolen passports. The Portuguese security service discovered that the passports had fake stamps and contacted the Belgian police, who revealed that the numbers of these passports were in the database.
Boucard enters into a computer the passport numbers that were confiscated by the Portuguese police: EC 503103 and EC 503104. Boucard will soon find out that these two passports were stolen in March in Madagascar from a diplomatic mail that was delivering 25 new Belgian passport blanks. Of all the types of passport fraud, this is the most dangerous. Only the finest knockoffs stand up to airport security scrutiny. After all, it is extremely difficult to identify the blanks of genuine passports if they are filled out correctly. Practically the only way to identify a person using a genuine passport blank is if an error is made while filling out the passport or the passport number ends up in the stolen passport database. This is why a computer database called Braingate is so important.
Boukar searches the database further and tells the police on the other end that he cannot find any evidence that the other 23 passports were used by terrorists. Of course, this does not prove that the passports were not used by anyone. It only means that no one has been caught with one of these passports yet. In fact, these passports have probably already been sold on the black market.
These 23 passports are not the only ones circulating on the black market, Bukar said. It's just that recently Belgium has quietly become the center of passport fraud. Since 1990, 19,050 Belgian passports have been stolen, according to Belgian police.
All of these passports were not stolen in one big heap, but rather in small consignments from a variety of government agencies in Belgium, including consulates and embassies in other countries. After being sold on the black market for as high as $ 7,500, these passports were used by various scammers and terrorists.
The Belgian police are now desperately trying to improve the security of storing passport forms, but even if they succeed, Bukar will still be on the job for years to come. Terrorists are too tenacious and there is a great demand for fake passports. Moreover, thousands of forms of stolen Belgian passports are still circulating around the world.
In many bars and restaurants in Belgium, you can find many suspicious individuals of Eastern European origin. Here are games of smuggling illegal immigrants, prostitutes and forged documents. If you need a fake document, then you need to ask in such places.
The process of acquiring a passport is never quick, especially if you are a foreigner and do not know the seller. Luc Allou, a Dutch reporter who recently acquired a fake mid-quality Belgian passport for $ 1,500 while working undercover, spent three months working in mafia-controlled Antwerp bars until he found a seller who trusted him enough to sell him a passport. ... “They never keep the goods in place,” says Allu. They have acquaintances who have acquaintances, and those, in turn, also have acquaintances. This is a sophisticated operation. "
Until recently, all these "connections" led to a small bar about two miles from the Chausee de Ninove in the Anderlecht area of Brussels. According to a statement from the Belgian police, the bar was the center of operations for an Albanian criminal, whom the police call "M". From his bar table, this gentleman ran one of the largest stolen passport deals in all of Europe.
I bought and sold thousands of passport forms on the black market. Its prices ranged from a few hundred dollars for an easily accessible Albanian passport to $ 5,000 or more for a recently stolen Belgian or French passport. Investigators also associate his name with a dozen thefts of passport forms at embassies and consulates in Germany, Holland and France.
Belgium's real problems with stolen passport forms began only in 1995. At that time, Europe was at the stage of unification and therefore the authorities of the European countries decided to abolish all existing internal borders between the countries.
Many fraudsters and bandits who migrated to Belgium have found that it is easier to steal passport forms than to make fake passports on their own. And the Belgians have simplified this task. The fact is that the laws of Belgium give the mayor of a small town the power to issue passports and therefore, for decades, Belgian passport blanks were stored in about 600 city buildings of the mayor's office, scattered throughout Belgium and, as a rule, such buildings were guarded only by an ordinary door locked.
In 1996 alone, 3,600 passport forms were gradually stolen. In some cases, thieves simply drilled a hole in the safe in order to get to the passport, and if they could not break it, they would tear the safe from the wall and take it away completely. And sometimes the robbers simply found the key to the safe in the table. As a rule, there were no witnesses, which incredibly complicated the possibility of solving the crime, but the Belgian police were not particularly worried about this, but simply ordered additional forms instead of the stolen forms.
In the end, under US pressure, the Belgian authorities began to take more effective measures against passport dealers. The fact is that back in 1991, Belgium joined 29 countries whose citizens had the right to visa-free entry to the United States, but numerous facts of theft of Belgian passports attracted the attention of officials in the United States. By 1997, so many Belgian passport blanks had been stolen that the United States threatened Belgium to end the visa-free regime for Belgian passport holders, and Belgian authorities then began storing passport blanks in state-of-the-art buildings in a residential area of Brussels. Passports are now delivered by courier in the same way as is done in the United States.
But that did not stop bandits such as Mr. M, and they moved their operations to the territory of the Belgian consulates and embassies, which remained an unreliable place for storing passport forms. Belgium has 110 embassies and consulates scattered around the world, and it's no surprise that crackers are fond of such objects.
As for the forms of stolen passports, they are quickly absorbed by the criminal world. 506 blank passports stolen from the consulate in Colon in August 1999 began to appear around the world. And the passports stolen in Strasbourg and The Hague were used for illegal entry into the territory of Conga, China and Morocco.
In the case of Mr. M, the policeman was lucky. Last January, during a search in Brussels, a 31-year-old Romanian was found in a warehouse for the manufacture and forgery of passports: typewriters, scanners, immigration stamps from 56 countries, a variety of identity cards and about 150 passport forms, including 43 Belgian forms, and other forms. Sweden, Greece and Germany. But most importantly, they found documents that show that this Romanian was one of the suppliers of passports for Mr. M.
Then the detectives began to circle in the bar where Mr. M was doing his business. They fully recorded all of his movements, eavesdropped on his cell phone and concluded that his network of operators consisted of approximately 50-60 citizens of Belgium, France and the Netherlands.
But Mr. M was too tough for them. After 4 months of operational work, 140 Belgian police officers intervened to upset Mr. M's network, but they failed. Caches of cash were found, but no fake passports were found. Mr M was clean before the law, and searches of his car and apartment did not lead to anything.
M. was kept under arrest for 2 months, and he bragged to the police that he had 30 million Belgian francs hidden in a secret foreign account, which they could not find. In the end, M. was accused only of conspiracy with a well-known criminal organization. They had no more evidence of him.
Belgium recently introduced a new passport, which has excellent protection against counterfeiting, and this circumstance will undoubtedly hit M.'s business hard, but it will be years before the new passports enter wide circulation and therefore we still have to use the old types. passports. As an example, I showed Boukard my American passport and asked him how easy it is to paste a new photo into it. Boukard looked at my passport, issued 8 years ago, and said: "5 minutes."
He stuck his thumb into the corner of the laminated film, showing me how to reattach it. You can soften your laminate flooring by placing it in a freezer or microwave, or even easier by treating it with a chemical called Undu, a product you can easily buy online.
Usually, after a passport is stolen, its number is not immediately entered into a computer database, so people who use a stolen passport to move know that it must be used quickly. And one detective from the State. The US Department told us that it only received the stolen passport numbers by mid-summer, almost a year after the passports went missing.
An abbreviated translation from the New York Times.
Alan Boukard unfolds the passport and examines it under ultraviolet radiation. The background image of the Royal Palace of Belgium, printed in faint color on the page, disappears. "See?" he exclaims. He takes another Belgian passport and holds it under special lighting. The design on this passport is printed with special ink, which makes it glow brightly. “The first passport is forged,” he issues his conclusion.
Boukard heads the anti-fraud division of the Belgian Federal Police. Every few minutes in his office there are calls from police officers from around the world, where he is asked to verify the authenticity of a Belgian passport that arouses suspicion.
In verifying the authenticity of passports, Boukard uses the database "Braingate", which is owned by the Belgian police, which contains data on 1.4 million stolen passports around the world.
For example, recently in Portugal, two citizens of Sri Lanka were detained, traveling with fake Belgian passports, or rather with stolen passports. The Portuguese security service discovered that the passports had fake stamps and contacted the Belgian police, who revealed that the numbers of these passports were in the database.
Boucard enters into a computer the passport numbers that were confiscated by the Portuguese police: EC 503103 and EC 503104. Boucard will soon find out that these two passports were stolen in March in Madagascar from a diplomatic mail that was delivering 25 new Belgian passport blanks. Of all the types of passport fraud, this is the most dangerous. Only the finest knockoffs stand up to airport security scrutiny. After all, it is extremely difficult to identify the blanks of genuine passports if they are filled out correctly. Practically the only way to identify a person using a genuine passport blank is if an error is made while filling out the passport or the passport number ends up in the stolen passport database. This is why a computer database called Braingate is so important.
Boukar searches the database further and tells the police on the other end that he cannot find any evidence that the other 23 passports were used by terrorists. Of course, this does not prove that the passports were not used by anyone. It only means that no one has been caught with one of these passports yet. In fact, these passports have probably already been sold on the black market.
These 23 passports are not the only ones circulating on the black market, Bukar said. It's just that recently Belgium has quietly become the center of passport fraud. Since 1990, 19,050 Belgian passports have been stolen, according to Belgian police.
All of these passports were not stolen in one big heap, but rather in small consignments from a variety of government agencies in Belgium, including consulates and embassies in other countries. After being sold on the black market for as high as $ 7,500, these passports were used by various scammers and terrorists.
The Belgian police are now desperately trying to improve the security of storing passport forms, but even if they succeed, Bukar will still be on the job for years to come. Terrorists are too tenacious and there is a great demand for fake passports. Moreover, thousands of forms of stolen Belgian passports are still circulating around the world.
In many bars and restaurants in Belgium, you can find many suspicious individuals of Eastern European origin. Here are games of smuggling illegal immigrants, prostitutes and forged documents. If you need a fake document, then you need to ask in such places.
The process of acquiring a passport is never quick, especially if you are a foreigner and do not know the seller. Luc Allou, a Dutch reporter who recently acquired a fake mid-quality Belgian passport for $ 1,500 while working undercover, spent three months working in mafia-controlled Antwerp bars until he found a seller who trusted him enough to sell him a passport. ... “They never keep the goods in place,” says Allu. They have acquaintances who have acquaintances, and those, in turn, also have acquaintances. This is a sophisticated operation. "
Until recently, all these "connections" led to a small bar about two miles from the Chausee de Ninove in the Anderlecht area of Brussels. According to a statement from the Belgian police, the bar was the center of operations for an Albanian criminal, whom the police call "M". From his bar table, this gentleman ran one of the largest stolen passport deals in all of Europe.
I bought and sold thousands of passport forms on the black market. Its prices ranged from a few hundred dollars for an easily accessible Albanian passport to $ 5,000 or more for a recently stolen Belgian or French passport. Investigators also associate his name with a dozen thefts of passport forms at embassies and consulates in Germany, Holland and France.
Belgium's real problems with stolen passport forms began only in 1995. At that time, Europe was at the stage of unification and therefore the authorities of the European countries decided to abolish all existing internal borders between the countries.
Many fraudsters and bandits who migrated to Belgium have found that it is easier to steal passport forms than to make fake passports on their own. And the Belgians have simplified this task. The fact is that the laws of Belgium give the mayor of a small town the power to issue passports and therefore, for decades, Belgian passport blanks were stored in about 600 city buildings of the mayor's office, scattered throughout Belgium and, as a rule, such buildings were guarded only by an ordinary door locked.
In 1996 alone, 3,600 passport forms were gradually stolen. In some cases, thieves simply drilled a hole in the safe in order to get to the passport, and if they could not break it, they would tear the safe from the wall and take it away completely. And sometimes the robbers simply found the key to the safe in the table. As a rule, there were no witnesses, which incredibly complicated the possibility of solving the crime, but the Belgian police were not particularly worried about this, but simply ordered additional forms instead of the stolen forms.
In the end, under US pressure, the Belgian authorities began to take more effective measures against passport dealers. The fact is that back in 1991, Belgium joined 29 countries whose citizens had the right to visa-free entry to the United States, but numerous facts of theft of Belgian passports attracted the attention of officials in the United States. By 1997, so many Belgian passport blanks had been stolen that the United States threatened Belgium to end the visa-free regime for Belgian passport holders, and Belgian authorities then began storing passport blanks in state-of-the-art buildings in a residential area of Brussels. Passports are now delivered by courier in the same way as is done in the United States.
But that did not stop bandits such as Mr. M, and they moved their operations to the territory of the Belgian consulates and embassies, which remained an unreliable place for storing passport forms. Belgium has 110 embassies and consulates scattered around the world, and it's no surprise that crackers are fond of such objects.
As for the forms of stolen passports, they are quickly absorbed by the criminal world. 506 blank passports stolen from the consulate in Colon in August 1999 began to appear around the world. And the passports stolen in Strasbourg and The Hague were used for illegal entry into the territory of Conga, China and Morocco.
In the case of Mr. M, the policeman was lucky. Last January, during a search in Brussels, a 31-year-old Romanian was found in a warehouse for the manufacture and forgery of passports: typewriters, scanners, immigration stamps from 56 countries, a variety of identity cards and about 150 passport forms, including 43 Belgian forms, and other forms. Sweden, Greece and Germany. But most importantly, they found documents that show that this Romanian was one of the suppliers of passports for Mr. M.
Then the detectives began to circle in the bar where Mr. M was doing his business. They fully recorded all of his movements, eavesdropped on his cell phone and concluded that his network of operators consisted of approximately 50-60 citizens of Belgium, France and the Netherlands.
But Mr. M was too tough for them. After 4 months of operational work, 140 Belgian police officers intervened to upset Mr. M's network, but they failed. Caches of cash were found, but no fake passports were found. Mr M was clean before the law, and searches of his car and apartment did not lead to anything.
M. was kept under arrest for 2 months, and he bragged to the police that he had 30 million Belgian francs hidden in a secret foreign account, which they could not find. In the end, M. was accused only of conspiracy with a well-known criminal organization. They had no more evidence of him.
Belgium recently introduced a new passport, which has excellent protection against counterfeiting, and this circumstance will undoubtedly hit M.'s business hard, but it will be years before the new passports enter wide circulation and therefore we still have to use the old types. passports. As an example, I showed Boukard my American passport and asked him how easy it is to paste a new photo into it. Boukard looked at my passport, issued 8 years ago, and said: "5 minutes."
He stuck his thumb into the corner of the laminated film, showing me how to reattach it. You can soften your laminate flooring by placing it in a freezer or microwave, or even easier by treating it with a chemical called Undu, a product you can easily buy online.
Usually, after a passport is stolen, its number is not immediately entered into a computer database, so people who use a stolen passport to move know that it must be used quickly. And one detective from the State. The US Department told us that it only received the stolen passport numbers by mid-summer, almost a year after the passports went missing.
