Identity theft EU

[gerf32]

What can scammers realistically do with a digital copy of your EU passport?

If someone suspicious got hold of yours, would you report it stolen and get a new one?

I know it's not as big of a deal as in the US, and I know it's common in many EU countries for hotels/hostels/airbnbs to take scans of your passport.

Would it be possible for a scammer to do anything serious without also having access to a selfie or a local identity card?

Side question: If you get your current passport revoked, could it still be used for fraud? Or do practically all services check for validity these days?

 

[Sols]

What can scammers realistically do with a digital copy of your EU passport?

Almost everything you can do yourself. Form companies, open accounts (bank, EMI, PSP, crypto exchange), and so on.

If someone suspicious got hold of yours, would you report it stolen and get a new one?

Yes.

Would it be possible for a scammer to do anything serious without also having access to a selfie or a local identity card?

Yes. Selfie checks are not a universal standard yet, although EU is pushing for biometric and liveness checks to become regulatory requirement.

Selfie check can be defeated by AI and Photoshop. Get the passport photo and get an AI to generate variations. Same goes for identity card.

Liveness and biometric checks are harder to overcome. They usually work better with synthetic IDs (real person, physical document, fictional identity) rather than stolen.

Side question: If you get your current passport revoked, could it still be used for fraud?

Yes.

Or do practically all services check for validity these days?

No, they are not connected to central passport registries.

 

[gerf32]

Thank you Sols!

Would you do anything in addition to getting the passport replaced?

I assume the revoked passport is still gonna be a big deal, since a lot of those services you talked about don't check the passport number.

 

[Sols]

Would you do anything in addition to getting the passport replaced?

There isn't much you can do beyond reporting it stolen and contact all financial institutions you currently use and update your records with them.

There are some identity theft monitoring services on the market that you could try signing up with. They do different things but are generally limited to public records (searching for new companies incorporated with your name appearing as director/shareholder, for example).

I assume the revoked passport is still gonna be a big deal, since a lot of those services you talked about don't check the passport number.

The problem is the unpredictability of who has access to what. There are services out there that some banks and financial service providers use to try to see if a passport number is reported stolen. But not everyone is using those services and those services have limited coverage. For example, they may be limited to domestic lists only or only certain lists.

Only law enforcement (which includes immigration) has access to the Interpol SLTD. Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database

 

[Steve3000]

What can scammers realistically do with a digital copy of your EU passport?

If someone suspicious got hold of yours, would you report it stolen and get a new one?

I know it's not as big of a deal as in the US, and I know it's common in many EU countries for hotels/hostels/airbnbs to take scans of your passport.

Would it be possible for a scammer to do anything serious without also having access to a selfie or a local identity card?

Side question: If you get your current passport revoked, could it still be used for fraud? Or do practically all services check for validity these days?

I knew someone who was paranoid about privacy. He had managed to make small sticky labels that covered all, or part of the card number,and showed a different number, and also had pdfs of them. He used his altered card for all occasions e.g. hotels, ID in shops etc, but NOT for dealing with banks or authorities - police, border guards etc.

I think you could do the same with a passport. Good quality scan, photoshop and print on sticky label.

 

[Cons Mark]

What can scammers realistically do with a digital copy of your EU passport?

If someone suspicious got hold of yours, would you report it stolen and get a new one?

I know it's not as big of a deal as in the US, and I know it's common in many EU countries for hotels/hostels/airbnbs to take scans of your passport.

Would it be possible for a scammer to do anything serious without also having access to a selfie or a local identity card?

Side question: If you get your current passport revoked, could it still be used for fraud? Or do practically all services check for validity these days?

We had cases when scammers stole our personal documents, but you need to realize that, if you are working actively then you are sharing your personal documents very often and simply it is already under the scammers' hands, and no need for direct connection between you and scammers.

Based on this, consider that personal data are under a lot of individuals' hands, and mainly liability comes when here is a direct link between action and result, so if you are not doing anything bad then keep yourself relaxed.

 

[whatname]

You should get a new passport and never hand your passport to anyone, but if you travel through EU (especially Italy) or countries like Georgia or Ukraine and book hotels or rent cars. Almost every single of them scans your passport and who knows what tf they do with it. They are so obsessed with it. Minimum wage receptionist...

Anyway... some countries in EU also publish your birth number (equivalent to SSN) if you are self employed and sometimes even your personal ID card number...

 

[JackAlabama]

You should get a new passport and never hand your passport to anyone, but if you travel through EU (especially Italy) or countries like Georgia or Ukraine and book hotels or rent cars. Almost every single of them scans your passport and who knows what tf they do with it. They are so obsessed with it. Minimum wage receptionist...

Anyway... some countries in EU also publish your birth number (equivalent to SSN) if you are self employed and sometimes even your personal ID card number...

Thats just a matter of life. If you live outside your home town, everyone and his dog has a digital copy of it.
You hand it over to xyz number of banks and even more hotels, car rental shops etc etc.