real passport - i think

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Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 6:32 pm

Hi all,

my lad has just sent me a copy of his passport and to be honest it looks more real than any other rubbish photoshop attempt ive ever seen.

What do i do? Using someone elses passport is a criminal offence no matter what country you are in - but would he be stupid enough to use his own passport? Should he be reported or am i just being naive?

Let me know what you think,

cheers all

TP

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 6:44 pm

Thanks for removing the image i wasnt aware of the pixel limit.

Would you care to share with me how exactly you know its a fake?

Thanks

edit: oh....dont i look stupid now!! FAKE 'written' all over it........sorry Embarassed

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

No need to repost it, Templeton- it looks quite real to me.

Sadly, there isn't much that can be done about it; once a victim gives his or her passport to a lad, it will most certainly be reused forever more. If one has the victim's real life details we could warn them about it, but that's really about it.

Edit to add- Sticking FAKE all over it would prevent the browsing lad from copying it from our forums and reusing it on others.

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

Just saw your reply, TS, I had resized it and written fake on it before reposting it myself.

[edit]

date of birth on passport is 1940, he doesn't look 67 to me Very Happy

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

Maybe he ages well? Laughing

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 7:20 pm

Rodus (or is it Tommo?) will tell you that only fine wines, and fine beautiful women improve with age!

Actually, there's not much to pick at in that passport, it's not a bad job in my opinion. You certainly see much worse that still fool people.

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 7:44 pm

Looks pretty real to me.

Elite Baiter Joined: 02 Jul 2006 Posts: 1702

Cant be real, USA has "Sponsored by IPOD" and a little ipod logo on them.

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 05 Jul 2006 Posts: 90

Would an American passport be authorised in Taipei?

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 1:58 pm

^^^^
I noticed that too. Then I remembered the US does not have an official embassy in Taiwan.
A Google search reveals that all US Gov't consular official duties in Taiwan are handled by the American Institute of Taiwan.
They can issue a visa for residents or immigrants, but not a passport.
So that still leaves the question, if he applied for a passport and an immigration visa while living in Taiwan, would the passport show an issuing authority of Taiwan?
For my money, if someone were going to all the trouble to create a fake passport, why wouldn't the US Dept of State as the issuing authority which a resdident would normally have?

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 2:14 pm

Yep. looks just like my son-in-laws one

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 2:29 pm

US passports can be issued in Taipei:

http://www.ait.org.tw/en/uscitizens/US_Passports.asp#10years

What makes me think that this one is real is that it is a 48 page one which isn't available now but was when this one was issued. If it were recently made by a scammer it would be a 24 page passport - they're rarely clever enough to realise that the page numbers changed in 2006 or that you could order both types back then. 48 page passports would normally be issued to businessmen who do a lot of flying, which would explain why this guy was issued with one in Taipei.