A good friend went to immigration to renew his retirement extension on Friday morning. All went relatively smoothly but it could not be completed because the boss was was not in the office to sign it off. He was told to return in the afternoon to collect his passport and bank book. When he did the immigration officer opened the passport to the photo page and said it's the wrong passport . They had given his passport and bank details to somebody else This was treated with some hilarity by the officers present he told me. Against all odds he knew the person that the passport and bank book belonged to so later that day they exchanged passports and bank books. However the potential of your passport and bank details falling into the wrong hands does not bear thinking about.

The moral of this story is if immigration ever hold onto your passport and you have to return for it check your photo page!

Edited August 10, 20196 yr by khastan

Good warning.  Could have been a huge amount of inconvenience if he hadn't got it back.

I do...


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

Good that not all passports are same color

(could not resist)

Mine is bright red.

I am speechless!  ????

8 minutes ago, Puchaiyank said:

I am speechless!  ????

You most certainly would be if you didn't check it, drove away and had a car accident and the cops asked to see your passport. ????????????

If the OP hadnt had the good fortune to know the other guy you just know there would have been a series of "mai pen rai" as immigration officer after officer melted away until the OP was talking to himself

30 minutes ago, Puchaiyank said:

I am speechless!  ????

Luckily, it seems you didn't lose your ability to type.

The passport is useless anyway to non-owners. Nowadays, they use fingerprints at the exit counter.

 

So nobody would want your passport.

Edited August 10, 20196 yr by EricTh

20 minutes ago, EricTh said:

The passport is useless anyway to non-owners. Nowadays, they use fingerprints at the exit counter.

 

So nobody would want your passport.

Average sale price for a stolen passport is around 3500 dollars US.

Actually, those personal details are in immigration office fairly open.  Sometimes immigration officials will use another person's application/passport to show a new applicant a live example of the paperwork requirement (they just grab a related packet from the stack)

 

Apparently privacy isn't a big deal for them.

11 hours ago, thequietman said:

Average sale price for a stolen passport is around 3500 dollars US.

Stolen passport is useless in modern times with fingerprinting and face-recognition software.

 

The stolen passport won't match the buyer's face and fingerprints.

 

Edited August 11, 20196 yr by EricTh

Do I understand part of your account correctly. You were allowed to leave Immigration with the other guy's passport and bank book (Immigration knowing they were not yours) and personally made the arrangements for the swap? 

2 hours ago, EricTh said:

Stolen passport is useless in modern times with fingerprinting and face-recognition software.

 

The stolen passport won't match the buyer's face and fingerprints.

 

How many countries in,let's say Europe uses face recognition and fingerprints? You try to stay away from airports with a stolen passport.

2 hours ago, EricTh said:

Stolen passport is useless in modern times with fingerprinting and face-recognition software.

 

The stolen passport won't match the buyer's face and fingerprints.

 

The most valuable stolen passports have photos of East or South Asian men or women of average height.  They still have plenty of use going between borders outside the region they were obtained in, and if it's good enough onto a plane to UK, Canada or Australia they can flush it midroute and request asylum.

15 hours ago, EricTh said:

The passport is useless anyway to non-owners. Nowadays, they use fingerprints at the exit counter.

 

So nobody would want your passport.

No its not,  identity fraud, comes to mind.

16 hours ago, EricTh said:

The passport is useless anyway to non-owners. Nowadays, they use fingerprints at the exit counter.

 

So nobody would want your passport.

 

4 hours ago, EricTh said:

Stolen passport is useless in modern times with fingerprinting and face-recognition software.

 

The stolen passport won't match the buyer's face and fingerprints.

 

At this point in time very few so called ‘biometric’ passports contain fingerprint or iris scan data.

 

FYI….. Up until June 2018, the only information that is held on the so called ‘biometric chip’ which is embedded in most passports only contained the same biographical information that is displayed on the photo page of the passport (including the holder’s photo).  The ‘chip’ has not held any biometric (fingerprints or iris scan) information.

 

The biographical information currently held on the ‘chip’ is encrypted and only accessible by scanning and reading the holder’s information presented at the bottom of the photo page between <<<< >>>>.  That information is then used by a software process to unlock the encrypted information.

 

Once unlocked the biographical information held on the 'chip' is then available to be displayed on an Immigration Officers screen to enable him/her to compare the ‘hard copy’ photo page information of the passport against that held on the ‘chip’.

 

The design and information held in a passport, or other international travel documents, is governed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) which operates under the auspices of the United Nations.  Currently some 160 nations have adopted the so called ‘biometric’ passport.

 

In June last year the General Council of the ICAO approved the inclusion of fingerprint and iris scan information on the ‘biometric chip’.  The inclusion of fingerprint and iris scan data is not mandatory and the decision to include such information is left entirely at the discretion of the passport issuing authority.

 

The above information is referenced to the ICAO document 9303, Machine Readable Travel Documents, Seventh Edition, 2015, Part 9.

BritTim Posted 4 hours ago




Do I understand part of your account correctly. You were allowed to leave Immigration with the other guy's passport and bank book (Immigration knowing they were not yours) and personally made the arrangements for the swap?

It was my friend not me, but yes you are 100% correct.

17 hours ago, thequietman said:

Average sale price for a stolen passport is around 3500 dollars US.

Wow !! Anyone want to buy Mine ??

1 minute ago, Nong Khai Man said:

Wow !! Anyone want to buy Mine ??

If Mercan ........ then NO!  ????

2 minutes ago, thequietman said:

If Mercan ........ then NO!  ????

What's Mercan ??

3 minutes ago, Nong Khai Man said:

What's Mercan ??

A - Mercan. ????

2 hours ago, Canuckabroad said:

The most valuable stolen passports have photos of East or South Asian men or women of average height.  They still have plenty of use going between borders outside the region they were obtained in, and if it's good enough onto a plane to UK, Canada or Australia they can flush it midroute and request asylum.

Ever check your taxi drivers id, we do it in Bali most of the time they reply  not me my cousin.

Please be aware that such things often happen at the Thai consulate in Savannakhet. I've seen it with my own eyes twice now. 

I prefer to hear a story first hand in the event I have questions of the person who can answer from personal experience. Other than that, thank you for the reminder  

My only protection is I have a passport cover on my passport I bought in Moscow. I dont thing another alien would want a passport with Putin looking at him, LOL.

"The moral of this story is if immigration ever hold onto your passport and you have to return for it check your photo page! "

  But most lightly you would spot it immediately ...unless the other guy is from the same country as yourself.

54 minutes ago, dotpoom said:

"The moral of this story is if immigration ever hold onto your passport and you have to return for it check your photo page! "

  But most lightly you would spot it immediately ...unless the other guy is from the same country as yourself.

I think a lot of countries use the similar color of the outside. As I see a lot of brown and dark blue passports.

But I agree, that this should seen right away, when you check the main page with photo and name!

On 8/11/2019 at 8:05 AM, EricTh said:

Stolen passport is useless in modern times with fingerprinting and face-recognition software.

 

The stolen passport won't match the buyer's face and fingerprints.

 

You're missing the point.

There is still a market for passports and 3.5k usd is the price.

Not all countries are up and running with passport techno like FP And FR.

Edited August 12, 20196 yr by Andycoops
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