How to Design a Fake Passport

A fake passport is a deceptively-produced travel or identity document used fraudulently as an identity or travel document. These fake documents can be used for crimes like identity theft, age fabrication, illegal immigration and organized crime; penalties vary widely according to country/state laws as well as type of fraud committed with them.

Producing fake passports has become an easy business venture for fraudsters. Black market vendors sell passports that can easily be tailored to meet specific buyer requirements – this may include specific sexes, hair colors and facial structures as well as approximate dates of birth. Criminals can even use Photoshop templates to produce passports which match specific names and nationalities.

A common method of creating fake passports is stealing an authentic document and replacing or altering its contents, including photo and visa pages. To counter this practice, it’s vital to create documents that are difficult to copy or personalize – this includes features like hinges connecting passport booklet and data pages which make removal hard without damaging the document entirely and UV sensitive ink lines that require alignment if another data page is added.

Co-design with customers during the security design stage is also key, to ensuring all elements are tightly linked and integrated, including employing visual and tactile identifiers to thwart any attempts by control officers at quickly spotting fraudulently produced documents.