Experts meet in Paris to tackle growing problem of ID fraud

PARIS (AP) – Police, immigration specialists and technology experts from 16 countries are seeking ways to tackle the growing problem of identity and document fraud that feeds the movement of extremists across borders, social welfare scams and traffickers preying on refugees.

Thursday’s closed-door meeting in Paris of 180 officials from Europe, the U.S., Canada and other countries is aimed at sharing expertise and finding ways to best use improving technology to crack networks of increasingly sophisticated fraudsters.

Almost half of the 226 networks of illegal immigration dismantled in France last year centered on fake documents, said Jean-Michel Brevet, of the French Office of False Documents and Identity Fraud, before the meeting.

Brevet said that false documents “are an extraordinary vector” because they touch all angles of crime.