Washington, U.S.A. — Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Mark Kirk (R-IL), and Dick Durbin (D-IL) sent a letter to Zhang Yesui, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in the United States, regarding recent reports detailing how individuals can obtain high quality counterfeit driver’s licenses from websites operated by companies based in China.

Brian Zimmer, President of the Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License applauded the Senators’ letter:

“Senators Grassley, Kirk, Harkin, and Durbin took an important step for national security today. Counterfeit driver’s licenses pose many risks to public safety and national security. It’s extremely important that the highest levels of the Chinese government be made aware that criminal entrepreneurs operating from their country are undermining the counter terrorism security apparatus of the United States. China faces its own threats from terrorism, and has previously pledged to be a responsible partner in the global war against terrorism.”

Over the past few years, several Chinese-based websites have begun to profit from providing counterfeit driver’s licenses. These websites allow an individual to insert a digital photo and biographic information that typically includes a false age and often a false name into the current state-issued driver’s license or identification card template. The individual then wires $200.00 to the Chinese company and receives two counterfeit driver’s licenses a few weeks later (prices are lower for orders made in bulk). One website contains templates for driver’s licenses for more than 20 states. Mr. Zimmer stated:

The identity card counterfeiting industry in China has expanded exponentially to produce highly sophisticated counterfeits of the driver’s licenses in more than twenty states, and is also producing immigration and work permit documents for customers intending to use them for illegal purposes. The terrorist who blew up a tourist bus in Bulgaria used a fake Michigan driver’s license to hide his real identity, so the risks inherent in exporting thousands of fake driver’s licenses should be self-evident to Chinese security officials.”

The Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License is a non-partisan, not for profit, crime prevention education public charity, supported by donor contributions from across the United States.

The CSDL slogan, “Working to protect the identity of every American”, embodies our commitment to higher standards for both government and private entities that issue identity credentials, especially state agencies that issue driver’s licenses and ID cards. CSDL undertakes research projects addressing best practices for DMVs, compliance with federal laws and regulations, identity fraud prevention and related identity management topics. CSDL provides research results and educational programs to the public and to state and federal officials and is a member of the Document Security Alliance and the American.

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A Taiwanese blogger is under suspicion for conspiring to defraud people by predicting that a natural disaster will hit Taiwan and split the country in two. The self-proclaimed prophet, identifying himself as “Teacher Wang”, has predicted a magnitude-14 earthquake on 11 May and his message has caused panic on the Island. This could be another example of malicious exploitation of the anxiety caused by the high-profiled natural disasters of 2011 – namely Christchurch and Fukushima.

In February, the New Zealand Herald could report the surfacing of several fake emails and websites inciting people to donate money to relief funds. One scam in particular was highly sophisticated, mimicking the Red cross and directing people to a fake website where they could enter their credit card details. Another used the face of a legitimate UK-based charity called Donate4Charity NZ. The fraudulent email asked New Zealanders to accept overseas donations for Christchurch earthquake victims, and to manage a bogus branch of the charity in return for financial compensation.

The same pattern emerged after the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami disaster. The security firm Symantec, could by mid-March, report that scammers were appealing for donations to fraudulent charities through a so-called ‘419-style fraud scam’. A “419” scam is a con that tries to persuade its victims to advance funds in hopes of realizing a much larger sum. The name originates from its related section in the Nigerian criminal code. In a company blog post, Samir Patil, a security researcher at Symantec warned: “Within the first few hours of the earthquake and tsunami, Symantec researchers observed more than 50 domains with the names of either ‘Japan tsunami’ or ‘Japan earthquake.’ These domains are either parked, available for sale, or are linked to earthquake sites. Don’t be surprised if you see these domains being used in phishing and spam attacks.”

Virtual criminals were reportedly unusually quick to exploit the disaster. To reporter Gregg Keizer of online magazine Macworld.co.uk, Chet Wisniewski, a security researcher with Sophos explained; “What’s surprising this time is how quickly they picked up on the news. We knew [scams] were coming, but they started appearing in record-breaking time, less than three hours after the earthquake.”

With these instances in mind, the prophecies of the Taiwanese blogger “Teacher Wang” could be another elaborate example of fraudsters, preying on people in the Asia-Pacific region’s fear. Wang advised people to live in containers if they wanted to survive the disaster, but local police are investigating if the blogger is working with a container business to defraud worried citizens. As of May 1, more than 100 cargo containers had been discovered in Nantou county, and were in the process of being fitted with doors, windows and air conditioning, according to the BBC’s correspondent in Taipei.

Despite the fact that Taiwan is in a quake zone, Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau has stated to the BBC that there is no basis for the doomsday prediction and that quakes cannot be reliably predicted. A weather bureau spokesman added in the Pretoria News that “Issuing unauthorised forecasts on earthquakes is punishable by a fine of up to Tw$1 million ($35000).” So far, the police have been unable to trace “Teacher Wang” but his message has been deleted from the web.

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