MEA runs a network of 36 Passport offices across the country and 190 Indian missions and posts abroad. Indian passports are exclusively issued to India’s citizens by the Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for international travel and serves as proof of citizenship as per the Passports Act, 1967. The dark net works through a series of unlisted proxy servers to mask the identity of the owner of any site hosted by and tracking him/her down is dependent upon cooperation of the latter that could be in separate national jurisdictions, sources said. “As long as such a fake passport is not produced before authorities with access to valid passport database, they can pose problems in finding out whether they are genuine or fake,” Yadav said. Such a counterfeit passport copy can be used for creating fake identity for availing services a variety of services, he said. MCP’s Special Inspector General Yashasvi Yadav told Mirror, “We detected the illegal activities of a few firms on the Dark Net including the Uzbekistan-based firm, which claim to provide high-quality counterfeit copy of Indian passport.” He said,” Such illegal activities can pose a threat to national security and we are conducting a probe and trying to reach the firms that however could be using proxy servers that are not easy to track.”Īccording to Yadav, the “sale” is up on Dark Net’s ‘Market’ that attracts customers for unlawful services and goods including sensitive official identity documents, narcotics and even hired criminals. The counterfeit passport copies are being offered at the ‘Market’ of the ‘ Dark Net’, which can only be accessed via specific explorers. On payment of the price, the suspected firm provides the buyer with the software and a type of paper that produce the counterfeit passport copies, said sources in the Maharashtra Cyber Police (MCP) department that is probing the suspect firms. It says, “This item is best for online verification, seems absolutely realistic.” Another vendor advertised its fake copy by saying the same can be used for “any fraud need”.

The firm, whose server is based purportedly in Uzbekistan, claims that its counterfeit copy of the ‘Indian passport template’ with ’14 editable layers’ are of ‘very, very high quality’.

The firms are actively advertising for their fraudulent passport copies for a price range of between USD 9.99, around Rs 760, to USD 22, around Rs 1,678, on Dark Web, which is refers to unlisted, encrypted networks on Internet. Mumbai: The Maharashtra police are probing a clutch of shadowy firms, including one seemingly located in Uzbekistan, who are under the scanner for conducting online sale of counterfeit copies of the Indian passport by providing its editable template.

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