Passport fraud and stolen identity is on the rise

Passport fraud is a federal crime. Usually, this crime is committed to facilitate another crime such as illegal immigration, contraband smuggling, economic crime and terrorism. Passport fraud is usually committed by stealing the identity of a deceased person to use their passport and modifying it such as altering the photo. 

Hungary have recently had an incident with passport fraud which has allowed 700 non-Hungarians obtain authentic Hungarian passports and assume the identities of the original passport holders. Of that group, at least 85 tried to travel to the United States, and 65 entered through the U.S. visa waiver program. U.S. authorities have declined to say why these individuals illegally entered the United States or how many remain. But experts said the fraudulent use of authentic passports puts a serious threat on the United States and other countries. DHS officials say they think criminals obtained the authentic passports by abusing a Hungarian government program that allows ethnic Hungarians who live outside the country to get citizenship in a faster way. 

The most obvious risk is that people who have a reason to disguise their identity are coming into the country. Common reasons for doing this are drug smuggling, organized crime or illegal immigration. The most troubling reason, however, would be a terrorist organization that are planning to bring harm to the particular country they have come into. 

If you don’t want to protect yourself from identity fraud, Manchester shredding could be of service to you.  Our hard drive and paper shredding (including confidential) processes always occur on site to ensure there is total security compliance as well as to give you complete peace of mind. 

Source: The Washington post May 12th 2018 
https://www.washingtonpost.com