Re: Post 9/11: Fake Passports Still Easy to Obtain

[Florian Weimer <fw () deneb enyo de>]

> Criminals and terrorists place a high value on illegally obtained travel
> documents, U.S. intelligence officials have said. Currently, poorly faked
> passports are sold on the black market for $300, while top-notch fakes go
> for around $5,000, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement
> investigations.

The prices are obviously inflated.  If you can get a real,
government-issued passport by providing fake documents with little
risk (as suggested in the article), market prices for complete
forgeries will be below than what the government charges for new
passports.  Of course, there are always some suckers you can charge
$5,000 (particularly among those who try to order passports online),
but I strongly suspect that even in the U.S., there are options which
are way cheaper.

Unfortunately, it's still illegal over here to use a fake passport
which has been created with your real identity, otherwise we could
save a few bucks by using alternate issuers.
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