Illegal immigrant beats high tech fingerprinting system
It’s already been reported the biometric fingerprinting systems the Japanese government installed at immigration checkpoints can be bypassed with fraudulent Japanese passports. Now it seems there is an even easier way for illegal immigrants to beat it:
A South Korean woman arrested in Nagano in August of 2008 has made a startling claim. Although her fingerprints were on record after a 2007 deportation, she was able to beat the high tech fingerprint check with a fake passport and some special tape she attached to her fingers. She said that the broker who sold her the passport and tape has used the same method to help many other foreigners illegally enter Japan.
Japanese authorities are in the process of investigating her story. If it turns out to be true, it will mean that any criminal with several thousand dollars to spare can use a similar method to slip through the fingerprinting system and enter the country.
Update: Some details this morning from the English language story in the Yomiuri.
The woman also was quoted as saying that the broker gave her the special tape with someone else’s fingerprints on, and that she slipped past the biometric recognition system by holding her taped index fingers over the scanner.
According to an analysis by the bureau, regular adhesive tape does not work, as the scanner fails to read any prints. The results have led the immigration bureau to suspect that the woman might have used a special tape bearing someone else’s fingerprints.
Although the bureau detained the woman at an immigration facility for further questioning, she did not provide information that pinpointed what the tape is made of or the South Korean broker before she was deported again in mid-September.
The bureau has compiled a report based on her statements and submitted it to the Justice Ministry. The report says it is conceivable such tape exists and that the South Korean broker might have helped a considerable number of foreigners enter Japan using it.
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This news doesn’t surprise me – it was only a matter of time before someone found a way to fool the system like this. Biometric fingerprinting only works 50% for me as some of my prints are scarred from a motorcycle crash some years ago (wearing good quality gloves at least saved my fingers).
Has any one else encountered difficulties with this system?
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The Japanese system is basically the same as US-visit. Why don’t we hear the same story of US-visit, which I think is penetrated by terrorists just like its Japanese counterpart.
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