Mobile Passport

[CPT Trips]

I see two problems with this. Passports have the person's real birth date on the main page and in the government database. How is an adult going to use a passport that has a child's age on it? And what happens when these passports need to be renewed? A passport for a child under 16 needs to be renewed every five years.

 

How? By having the passport with the DOB of an adult. Not that hard for the pros . . . Say you appear to be about 40. Find someone born about 40 years ago and died young. Work the system to steal that name and ID. Use it within10 years and do the dastardly deed before renewal, or just renew it.

 

ETA: at least that's how it works in the spy novels and thrillers . . .

Edited October 14, 2014 by CPT Trips

[greatam]

I see two problems with this. Passports have the person's real birth date on the main page and in the government database. How is an adult going to use a passport that has a child's age on it? And what happens when these passports need to be renewed? A passport for a child under 16 needs to be renewed every five years.

 

Guess I didn't make myself clear. It is an age old technique to get a fake ID but now with all the black hat hackers on the internet, it has been updated with the ease of the web and is even more dangerous than those of us that just wanted a fake ID to go into a bar when we were 18 and the legal age was 21.

 

It is called paper chasing. In the 70's, people used to go through obituaries or even walk gravesites to find a child whose birth date was similar to yours. At that time you didn't need a SS# as a child. Even today, death and birth certificates are not matched up in a lot of places. My husband died on Feb 9, 2013 but I never sent in the death certificate marked "for government use". If I ever decide to claim his SS, I may do it but when I went to the SS office to find out what I should do in regards to his SS, they just took a look at the death certificate (didn't even make a copy) and the lady wrote down I was entitled to the death benefit and I got the SS death benefit check. So much for our government even knowing he has passed away.

 

Now you don't have to do much searching because there are plenty of people out there who have hacked databases to provide names, birth dates AND SS#'s which every parent needs the first year they file taxes and claim the child.

 

Before they shut down Silk Road, there were plenty of people selling "clean" birth certificates. And those who make REAL passports (even though they may not be in your real name) are VERY careful to check databases so they don't issue one with a name on the no fly list, the 10 most wanted list, a pedophile list or any other red flag that can be pretty easily checked through sophisticated hackers. They KNOW if someone gets caught with one of their passports, that person will lead right back to the maker. So they are pretty darn careful and all can be done from their kitchen table.

 

Those REAL US passports with chips are still available through some of the darknets such as TOR or through any of the darknets that use the onion routers.

 

And to top it off-here are two articles about getting passports which are as REAL as mine but may not be in the owner's real name. First one was written by an AP reporter in 2009. I actually read it and bookmarked it while I was in Iraq. It wasn't published in the US (wonder why) but it was published in a lot of overseas magazines/websites, etc., etc. This was just happens to be from a RUSSIAN publication but credit is given to AP.

 

http://rt.com/usa/fake-papers-can-get-you-an-american-passport-even-after-9-11/

 

And here is a very recent one about Puerto Rican birth certificates being used to get REAL (but in a different name) passports.

 

http://watchdog.org/155518/fake-birth-certificates-find-easy-live-american-dream/

 

Still think this mobile web thing is a good deal???

 

I am a firm believer that instead of sending hackers to jail and some big time drug dealers to prison, our government should be offering top paying jobs like we used to do. Frank Abagnale (Catch Me If You Can-movie with Leonardo DiCaprio) and some of the top drug pilots (Barry Seal being one) were so much more valuable to the US government in fighting certain types of crime than all those Ivy League educated lawyers working at the FBI who never had more than a parking ticket in their lives.

 

Offer a bunch of black hat hackers immunity to whatever they do, give them $1M per year, let them live their very geeky 24 hours up all night locked in a small room and get some REAL security. Snowden did it, Julian Assange did it. And they didn't even get paid.

Edited October 14, 2014 by greatam

[S.A.M.J.R.]

If I'm understanding correctly, the new mobile web thing takes the place of the paper customs forms. What happens with the customs forms after they're handed in? Isn't there a chance of some of the sheets be taken, copied, whatever and the information gathered that way?

 

I don't see the mobile system as anything more secure, but I don't see it as being less secure either.

[greatam]

 

ETA: at least that's how it works in the spy novels and thrillers . . .

 

Worked very well in real life too. One of my Sorority Sisters was killed in a car wreck. She was just over 21. I don't remember how many of us got a copy of her birth certificate but as long as we didn't all walk into a bar at the same time, into those 21 year old drinking age bars we went. I remember having big time "burning" parties to get rid of those fake ID's when one of us actually turned 21. Now I guess we could be prosecuted for identity theft but we only used them to go to bars-not steal people' bank accounts, buy cars or anything like that.

Edited October 14, 2014 by greatam

[boogs]

How? By having the passport with the DOB of an adult. Not that hard for the pros . . . Say you appear to be about 40. Find someone born about 40 years ago and died young. Work the system to steal that name and ID. Use it within10 years and do the dastardly deed before renewal, or just renew it.

 

ETA: at least that's how it works in the spy novels and thrillers . . .

 

Wouldn't they need to keep that passport active by renewing it in the allotted time, or provide a birth certificate to have it reissued if past expiration date?

 

Don't believe everything you read in spy novels. I have no doubt that much of what the author writes is either total fiction or a stretch of the truth. The general public would be bored if the real processes were used - not exciting or "007" enough. :D

[slidergirl]

Wouldn't they need to keep that passport active by renewing it in the allotted time, or provide a birth certificate to have it reissued if past expiration date?

 

Don't believe everything you read in spy novels. I have no doubt that much of what the author writes is either total fiction or a stretch of the truth. The general public would be bored if the real processes were used - not exciting or "007" enough. :D

 

They just get another fake. The trade is very much real and alive in the US. Like Greatam said, you can go to places in Los Angeles and find vendors for fake passports, birth certificates, green cards, etc… Not just the stuff of novels. Some folks who cross the border through a hole in the fence need documentation to get a job - this is where they go… Any form of documentation is available for the right price.

[boogs]

They just get another fake. The trade is very much real and alive in the US. Like Greatam said, you can go to places in Los Angeles and find vendors for fake passports, birth certificates, green cards, etc… Not just the stuff of novels. Some folks who cross the border through a hole in the fence need documentation to get a job - this is where they go… Any form of documentation is available for the right price.

 

Seems like a good reason to keep our passports locked up in a safe - including the stateroom safe - unless it is absolutely needed.

[CaroleSS]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but we have the GOES cards. Staring Nov 4, Port Everglades will be launching the MPC.

 

It seems to me, that this is just an electronic way to enter your customs declaration, which we already have with GOES. Am I missing something?

[slidergirl]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but we have the GOES cards. Staring Nov 4, Port Everglades will be launching the MPC.

 

It seems to me, that this is just an electronic way to enter your customs declaration, which we already have with GOES. Am I missing something?

 

GOES goes a little further. This one you get to bypass passport control altogether and just hand off your receipt to the customs inspector as you go out the door. From what I understand, those with the free MPC app still have to stand in line for passport control. The MPC is just an electronic version of the customs declaration form.

Now, you have to be sure that Port Everglades has the GE kiosks for you to use your GOES number. If they don't, you'll be in line with all the others. Maybe download the MPC app and use it if there are no GE kiosks but MPC kiosks.

 

I didn't invent the Internet, but my now-ex wrote a lot of the software for it's network security guts and I did a lot of the testing of that software ;)

[CaroleSS]

Thanks for the info!

 

Last year we sailed out of Port Everglades and although they didn't have the kiosks, they did have a dedicated GE line, so we bypassed the long lines.

 

We sail Monday, so I will let y'all know about disembarkation goes upon my return! :)