With so many phony passports going around, HOW DO YOU TELL IF A PASSPORT IS LEGITIMATE?

Question

There is so much fraud going on. I know of phony drivers licenses scams and phony passport scams. I want to know how I can tell if a passport someone is using to identify themselves is authentic or not. How can I tell if this passport is legitimate or if this is a scam?

Answer 1

Are you talking about your passport? If so where/how you got it should answer your question.

Answer 2

False passports (and other documents) generally fall into four categories - Genuine documents that have been altered; genuine documents obtained through fraudulent means; counterfeit documents that have been created to look like genuine documents; and "fantasy" documents which have no legal basis in fact.  

Without special training, experience and resources, it could prove very difficult to determine whether a document is genuine.  This is especially true if people are providing scans of their documents over the Internet, in an attempt to demonstrate the validity of their claims (in my experience though, such claims are always false).

When in doubt, and if the situation truly warrants a definitive answer, you may be able to check with certain officials of your own country, or of the issuing government.

Answer 3

You probably can't. You'd have to have a good idea what the originals look like to begin with. Most passports now have the biographic data under a plastic laminate. If that looks like it's been cut or tampered with, chances are you've got a phony. However, any one with real resources gets an original passport legally issued with false information. So, there's nothing to detect. that's why the US does fingerprints and photos to go along with visa applications and entries into the US.

Answer 4

where the pic is there is now a hologram look next time and u will notice it

Answer 5

usually if you have doubt, go on the country home page, and look at their passport, it will give you an idea of what they look like, yet ? it could still be a fake....alot of countries are?

as long as yours is real,

Answer 6

Passports have many security features constructed within them. But the easiest way to identify a false passport is to look at how it has been produced. Most new passports have the photo printed onto the bio page. If the photo is placed underneath a laminate check the edges of the passport for any lifting of the laminate.

Watermarks are often placed in the data pages (where officials stamp the passport). When light shines through the paper of the data page a watermark is detected.

Also, on the inside back page, the ink is "Intaglio". When you touch it you can feel the raised ink.

Hope this helped a bit.