How do I check if someone's French passport is real and not forged?

Question

Someone I have met is purporting to be a French citizen in an African country. They have sent a B&W copy of a passport. It is not readily apparent it has been tampered with but the businessman in me would like to confirm the passport is true somehow....

Answer 1

Set it on fire - if it burnt, it WAS real. If it does not burn, it's fake.

Answer 2

You could try to contact the Foreign Commercial Department of the French Embassy in Mali.  But we all seem to agree that this man is planning to take  your money

Answer 3

careful with Algierians, i would check with the embassy before you do anything with him

Answer 4

If it smells like cat pee and smoke than its a authentic french passport.

Answer 5

A photocopy is not a good way to tell if a passport is authentic.  It is too easy to place a picture over the real picture and make it look genuine.  There are also several security features that do not translate.  Such as the ink and feel of the pages.

Basically what I was taught during some advanced training is if you have a bad feeling about something or someone to the point that the hairs on the back of your neck stand up you are usually right.  There is probably something wrong to give you that bad feeling.  Always stick with your first impression

Answer 6

if is he from  Nigeria, beware!

most scams come out of Nigeria !

that is all i can say to you.

if this person has a real business?

write to the embassy of this contry, be careful to do this on your own , not ask him to help you out !

Answer 7

And this person you have met is requesting your assistance in the form of money to help in an emergency, right?

Forget it!  With the image editing software currently available, it is quite easy to create any document you could possibly think of.  This person is trying to scam you in one way or another.

Answer 8

ask him to send you by mail a notorized copy of his passport (all pages) and you will see