Fake Documents: A Report on BBC

[rational611]

I was going throught the news at BBC and found a report of counterfieters offering fake documents on the Internet. The news report video can be found here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/shared/player/player.stm?title=Fake%20documents%20for%20sale%20o n%20the%20internet&clipurl=http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/news_web/video/40642000/nb/40642765_nb_16x9.ram&cs=news

I searched a little on Google and came up with the following posts by people who had tried their hand at counterfieting currency. This link can be found here
http://s105883597.websitehome.co.uk/showthread.php?t=198451

Does anybody have more information on this subject?

To the Moderators: Move this post to a more suitable place if it is not appropriate here

[nbk2000]

How abouts providing a link to the BBC article that's more than 2 sentences long...like a complete article? :rolleyes:

[rational611]

Its a video not an article. However there was a problem with the link. I have fixed it now. It should work.

[nbk2000]

Should have made that clear to start with.

Oh, and it's RealVideo, just so everyone knows.

[rational611]

I found this report on false passports. Hope you people will find it interesting.

The article can be found at:http://rantburg.com/jMailer.asp?ID=29556

Excellent False Passports Sold in Polish Marketplace
AN undercover Sun reporter has exposed just how easy it is to get a false east European passport and exploit the Government’s shambolic immigration system. Our man was able to buy a forged Polish passport with a false name in a bustling Warsaw street market for just £800. He was also able to buy a picture ID card in his own name for £330. The Home Office last night confirmed that from May 1 — when Poland and nine other nations join the EU — either document will allow entry to Britain. Similar fake credentials could be used by illegal immigrants from non-EU countries . . . as well as terrorists or big-time criminals.

A tip-off from a contact in the Polish underworld led us to Rozyckiego Market, a vipers’ nest of criminality in the centre of Polish capital Warsaw. Within seconds of entering the collection of rickety wooden and corrugated iron stalls we were approached by an unshaven man in a leather jacket. Through a translator, the man, with black moustache and baseball cap, offered our reporter a Polish ID card. The man boasted: “You can have it in whatever name you like. You will be able to travel all over Europe with it. It will be a perfect fake. You can pick it up tomorrow.” Then, as other shoppers strolled by, we were ushered behind a flower stall out of sight of the busy street. Our man was then introduced to another gang member, an overweight, bald man in his fifties. He asked through the translator for our reporter’s height, hair and eye colour. He agreed to provide an ID card in the name Oliver Harvey. Our man handed over a passport picture and 300 US dollars (£165) up front. Returning two days later, he picked up the picture ID, a brilliant fake which also gave our reporter a false address in Warsaw. It also gave the city as his place of birth and a made-up name for his father. The green-fronted card, number DX1258874, came complete with official government stamps and watermarks. We paid a further £165 in US dollars for the ID and shook hands.

The bald man then said through our translator: “We trust you now. Why don’t you buy a passport? We have Polish and Austrian, but Austrian is more expensive. You can have any name you like but why don’t you let us make up a Polish identity for you? Border guards will simply look at your passport and wave you through.” His pal said: “People travel to Britain and throughout Europe on our passports. We will create a new identity for you, no problem.” After quoting $2,000, around £1,100, our man bartered the price down to £800. As we struck the deal another man, of central Asian origin, arrived to collect HIS false passport. The racketeer proudly showed the fake to our reporter who, judging the papers a good copy, handed over a £500 down payment in US dollars. Our reporter now had the false name of Andrzej Miler, false date of birth March 28, 1968, and passport number BM3196643. When we compared our version with a legitimate Polish passport, there was no obvious difference. One local said: “This market is like a passport consulate. As well as passports and ID cards, you can get driving licences and degrees.”

In four weeks Poland will be the EU’s eastern frontier. Mafia gangs have already established the nation as a people-smuggling staging post en-route to Britain and the West. Around 50,000 illegals from as far afield as China, Afghanistan and Somalia were stopped trying to cross Poland’s borders last year. Almost 10,000 forged passports and other ID documents were discovered at British ports in 2002, the latest year for which figures are available — an increase of 46 per cent on 2001. But an unknown number of illegals with false papers make it into Britain each year. Forged passports are commonly used by terrorists to slip in and out of countries undetected. Two al-Qaeda terrorists, jailed in Britain in 2003, were discovered with hundreds of false travel documents. ....

The false documents we bought in Poland were examined by a counterfeit passport expert . . . who passed them with flying colours. The London-based specialist, unnamed because he helps investigations involving terrorists and organised crime, subjected the documents to vigorous forensic tests. He concluded in a written report: “Both documents would be accepted as genuine in a variety of scenarios. After Poland’s accession to the EU, the passport is likely to be accepted in all EU countries. “This is particularly the case where they are not physically examined but merely accepted ‘on the nod’ as the holder passes through the control holding the photo page open, as in the UK.” Once in Britain the passport could be used for a string of criminal and black market activities. The specialist added: “You could use the passport to open a bank account, get a credit card, get a job and cash cheques.” But he said the fakes are not perfect. And the passport could be rumbled if a Customs man decided to look closely at it. He added: “I would not expect an immigration officer to accept the passport if it is subjected to any kind of physical examination. “Having said that, if there were travel stamps and visas in the passport, it might be enough to put the officer off asking too many questions.”

A gang netted more than £1million by sticking immigrants’ pictures into genuine British passports. In 14 months up to 500 illegals were waved through at British airports and ferry terminals. Three of the gang — Britons Robert Walkden, 31, Mohammed Jamil, 32, and Khalid Mahmood, 31 — were jailed for six years each in Bradford yesterday. They charged £2,000 to escort the Asian migrants from Europe into Britain, sticking their photos into genuine passports believed to have been bought from British citizens. Detective Constable Peter Thornton, who led the inquiry, said: “The fact is if you are in the queue for people with British passports, the chances are you won’t be stopped.”
Posted by: Mike Sylwester 4/2/2004