The MRZ passport strip is an important element of document security: it contains the most critical information and ensures a thorough check of the authenticity of this information by preventing its falsification.
In this article we will see what are the most common cases of passport fraud and how to avoid them. Here we go!
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What information does the MRZ passport strip contain?
We have written a very comprehensive article about the information in the MRZ Passport Strip which you can find at the following address: Check the MRZ Passport Strip.
Enjoy your reading!
Fraud on the first MRZ passport line
First of all, we will pay attention to the first 2 characters which are always the same: P with or without a special character depending on the country (otherwise it’s a chevron ” <“).
Then there’s the three-character issuing country code, which must correspond to the ISO 3166-1 standard (link: https: //fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1).
This is followed by the holder’s surname and first name(s), completed at the end by chevrons (”
Fraud on the second MRZ passport line
The second line begins with the number of the 9-character document, which can be found printed on the passport itself (and which must therefore be identical).
The next character is a key to check the document number, allowing its integrity to be validated and which can be verified through our service.
The next three digits correspond to ISO 3166-1.
The next 6 digits represent the holder’s date of birth, in YYMMDD format: this must correspond to the date of birth shown on the passport.
The next character is a date of birth control key, allowing you to validate its integrity and which can be verified through our service.
Then the gender on a character “H” or “F” which must correspond to the gender of the holder.
The next 6 characters represent the expiry date in YYMMDD format, which must match the date on the passport.
Then the validation key of the expiration date, allowing you to validate its integrity and which it is possible to verify thanks to our service.
The next 14 characters represent the personal number, used by some countries (represented by chevrons otherwise, ”
The second line ends with two control keys: the first for the personal number (or “<” if the number is not used), and the global control key of the document to validate the integrity of the two MRZ lines, which can be checked with our service.
Practical work: online passport verification
Case n°1
Can you detect the problem(s) on the MRZ passport strip above?!
Answer
Everything seems to be in order but there is one element that is not correct!
– the date of birth has been changed, and the validation key of the date of birth is invalid!
– the global validation key of the document is therefore not valid either!
You have to use a service like ours to check the validation keys!
Case n°2
Can you detect the problem(s) on the MRZ passport strip above?!
Answer
Everything seems to be in order but there is one element that is not correct!
– the expiry date has been changed, and the validation key for the expiry date is invalid!
– the global validation key of the document is therefore not valid either!
You have to use a service like ours to check the validation keys!
Case n°3
Can you detect the problem(s) on the MRZ passport strip above?!
Answer
Everything seems to be in order compared to the errors reported in cases n°1 and case n°2, but there’s still an error!
– the number of characters in the MRZ strip is invalid (86 instead of 88)!
– none of the validation keys is valid!
Conclusion
You’re now able to detect the main changes on a passport!
It is advisable to use our service which will check your parts completely in a few minutes!
