At the start of 2010, there were 11 million stolen or lost passports listed in the global database of Interpol.

Source:  Associated Press, “AP Interview: Interpol chief says weak passport verification world’s biggest travel threat,” Los Angeles Times, January 29, 2010.

According to officials in Ireland, about 40 percent of all stolen passports are probably being sold illegally. The stolen passports are stripped of the victims identification and then sold on the black market for around $3,500 (between 2,00 and 3,000 Euros).

The news article also mentions that Canadian passports have the highest demand on the black market, with Ireland coming in second.

Source:  Jennifer Bray, “‘Alarming’ rise in stolen passports on black market ,” Sunday Tribune, July 5, 2009.

A new report by the investigative arm of the US Congress has found that it is very easy to obtain a real passport from the State Department by using counterfeit materials.  The GAO was able to obtain passports through a series of undercover tests, such as using false documents to a dead person’s social security number.  In each of the 4 undercover tests, the investigator was able to receive an official passport. 

Read the GAO report, “Undercover Test Reveal Significant Vulnerabilities in State’s Passport Issuance Process,” here. 

Read the news article from CNN here.

595 people were arrested on Tuesday at a Mississippi plant on illegal immigration charges.  According to Reuters, the investigation centered around identity theft issues and the use of fake social security cards by the laborers.

From Reuters:

U.S. immigration agents have arrested 595 people at a Mississippi factory in what was the largest workplace enforcement raid in the United States to date, an immigration official said on Tuesday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez said federal agents arrested the workers in a raid at the Howard Industries Inc. factory in Laurel, Miss, on Monday,

“This is the largest targeted workplace enforcement operation we have carried out in the United States to date,” Gonzalez told Reuters by telephone.

The swoop at the plant, which makes electrical equipment including transformers, was part of an ongoing investigation into identity theft and fraudulent use of Social Security and for illegal immigrants.

The nationalities of the detainees was not immediately available.

Black British passports were stolen by hijackers in Northern England.

From the AFP (via Yahoo News):

Hijackers made off with boxes of blank British passports worth a fortune on the black market in a raid on a delivery van, police said Tuesday, in the latest blow to the government’s record on security.

Detectives said the 24 boxes of about 3,000 passports and visa documents, destined for British embassies around the world, were worth some 2.5 million pounds (five million dollars, 3.2 million euros).

Although the passports will be useless as travel documents, the article mentions that buyers could use the passports to establish identity at financial banks.

An industry expert said the passports would not be of much use as travel documents but warned that they could be used to create a new identity while forgers could use them as proof of identity for banks.

“From that one document you could literally create your own identity as a foreign national who last month got a British passport,” said Steve Beecroft, a specialist in so-called “smart technology”.

The stolen documents could be sold to people like asylum seekers who want to pass themselves off as British citizens, he said.

From the Counterterrorism Blog:

Today Thai authorities announced arrests in an enormous counterfeit passport ring. 12 people were arrested and some 20,000 fake passports were seized. It was the second such arrest in the past month.

The 12-person gang, included Thais, Burmese, and Indonesians. The 20,000 passports were from a diverse group of countries: Burma, Brunei, Canada, France, Germany, Malaysia, Russia, Sweden and the United States. Thai police reported that 2,000 of the passports were ready to be used.

The ringleader of the cell, Somkhuan Muen-in, had nearly 10-year career in document forging, people and arms smuggling. Police assert that he had smuggled arms for the Tamil Tigers in 2003.

The US city of Houston is confronting a flood of fake identity documents that are being sold to illegal immigrants.

From the Houston Chronicle:

Illegal immigrants fearful of being caught in stepped-up workplace raids are fueling a growing market in Houston for phony immigration and work documents.

The result, experts say, is a glut of false, altered and counterfeit documents that are easily obtained at Houston-area flea markets, businesses and clandestine printing shops set up in homes and apartments. The bogus documents include counterfeit Texas driver’s licenses, fake Social Security and “green cards,” and even worthless international driver’s licenses sold here and in other states.

“You could put all of HPD full time on this thing, and I don’t think we could put a dent in it,” said Lt. Robert Sells, with the Texas Department of Public Safety’s driver’s license fraud unit.

The demand has been so strong that law enforcement officers in Texas have been bribed in recent years to sell the valuable documents, and several dozen have been caught.

An ex-federal prosecutor said heightened enforcement has not only boosted demand for counterfeit documents, but increased the price and quality of the fakes.

Source: Moises Naim, Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers, and Copycats are hijacking the global economy, (New York: Doubleday, 2005), pg. 101.

In a database maintained by Interpol, 14 million lost or stolen identity documents are listed.

Source: Caroline Brothers, “Iraqis turn to gangs to flee for safety,” International Herald Tribune, July 26, 2007,(accessed: July 31, 2007).

Fake IDs are often including in the smuggling fees for undocumented immigrants who are smuggled from Mexico.While in the United States, undocumented immigrants are able to purchase identifications from flea markets and other vendors for $75 to $300. Papers available for purchase include Social Security cards, Driver Licenses, and Green Cards.

Source: David Montgomery, “ID forgery industry is booming,” Miami Herald, May 7, 2006.