❗Let's close the gap: We still need your help to raise $40,000 by April 1. Donate now

The life of a stolen passport

Sabri Ben-Achour Mar 12, 2014
HTML EMBED:
COPY

The life of a stolen passport

Sabri Ben-Achour Mar 12, 2014
HTML EMBED:
COPY

3.2 million passports have been lost or stolen from U.S. citizens since 2004.

That’s a lot of passports!

When a passport is stolen, it can make a circuitous loop around the world via underground criminal markets. Here’s how it happens:

STEP 1:

The Passport is taken.

          

STEP 2:

The Passport makes its way from the petty thief to a wholesale warehouse. There, it will sit in a stack of other stolen passports. 

          

STEP 3(A):

A passport forger calls the warehouse to say, “I have someone who needs an American passport, got any?”

STEP 3(B):

The warehouse man rummages through the stack, pulls out a passport, and sends it to the forger.

STEP 4:

The forger will, if necessary, adulterate the image on the passport. He’ll run it through a chain of people possibly 10 links long, until it makes its way to the client.

STEP 5:

Someone will buy the fake passport for $200-$7,000. It could be used to get a job, to open a bank account, to launder money, or to get on a plane. As is clear from the Malaysian Air mystery, border patrol does not always check against Interpol lists of stolen or flagged passports. 

STEP 6 (optional):

The stolen passport can be used to glean identification information that can then be used to apply for brand new passports – with a criminal’s photo and biometric information attached.  

 

 Instructions for reporting your passport as lost or stolen are available here (for local) and here (for abroad).

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.