British banks asked the Government to create a special database to help them identify counterfeit foreign passports, said the Air Force.
Banks fear the current situation where far too easy to use fake foreign passports to open bank accounts, overdraft or credit card. Against this backdrop, the British Bankers Association, BBA, has accused the government in lack of countering with financial fraud.
Such fraud already costs UK economy 20 billion pounds ($ 32.8 billion) a year ago, and the BBA even ready to pay for a solution to the problem. Bankers say they can not rely on foreign embassies in the issue of verification of documents, especially against the backdrop of increasing the number of forged passports from the new EU member states.
“What we propose to introduce, looks like some kind of database that is maintained by the Government or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We need current information on various safety measures that are used by various states to protect their passports,” – said Richard Cook (Richard Cook) from the BBA.
Currently, with the help of the Internet is quite easy to find offers for sale of forged documents. Anyone can buy a fake driver’s license, social security card or passport of Great Britain and other countries. For example, a false Estonian passport or driving license will cost a British buyer for ? 120 ($ 197).
In the past two years, the UK Immigration Service has verified 100 thousand internal passports. 1 thousand were forged. Similar in scale audits of foreign passports are not yet taken place.
