[funsec] Why fingerprint biometrics are bad...

[Dragos Ruiu]

(Experts have been saying it for years. Now we will have to deal with  
the inadequacies of the systems put in place. cheers, --dr)

url: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20090103TDY02308.htm

Woman details immigration scam
Yasuhiro Maeda / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

SEOUL--A South Korean woman who entered Japan on a fake passport in  
April 2008 by slipping through immigration control's state-of-the-art  
biometric system using special tape on her fingers has detailed to The  
Yomiuri Shimbun how her illegal entry was facilitated by a South  
Korean broker suspected of helping numerous illegal immigrants using  
the same technique.

According to sources, the woman, 51, was deported from Japan in 2007  
for overstaying her visa. In August 2008, she was found to have  
reentered the country in April and was deported again in mid- 
September. She currently lives in southern South Korea.

Excerpts of her interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun follow:


The Yomiuri Shimbun: When was your first visit to Japan?

Woman: It was September 1999, when I entered as a tourist.

After [my tourist visa] expired, I continued to stay while working as  
a dishwasher at restaurants or as a bar hostess in Nagano.

I was deported to South Korea in July 2007, but I really wanted to  
return to Japan because I couldn't forget a Japanese man I had been  
dating.

How did you reenter Japan?

In mid-April 2008, I met a male broker at a cafe in Seoul after I  
asked a South Korean woman, whom I got to know at a Tokyo Regional  
Immigration Bureau facility [in 2007] when I was deported for the  
first time.

I was told the man had helped many South Koreans enter Japan using the  
method, in which people put special tape containing imitation  
fingerprints on their fingers to cheat the fingerprint scanner at  
immigration.

I saw the broker answering his cell phone and speaking with people who  
said they had "successfully entered Japan."

I'd heard that one of them entered Japan three days before me by using  
the [fingerprint] trick.

How much did you pay to the broker?

I paid 13 million won [1.3 million yen at the exchange rate at that  
time].

On the day in late April when I was scheduled to depart South Korea, I  
received a forged passport in exchange for the money at a cafe. There,  
I had the tape affixed to my index fingers, and then took a flight to  
Aomori from [South Korea's] Yingcheng Airport.

Why did you head for Aomori Airport instead of Narita or Kansai  
[airports]?

The broker told me he had his clients use various small regional  
airports across Japan, saying it would be very risky if illegal  
immigrants flocked to one airport. He also said passport control at  
small airports isn't generally as rigorous.

I was told to reduce my baggage as much as possible and pretend to be  
going to golf or hot spring resorts in Japan.

When I arrived at Aomori Airport, I filled out the immigration card by  
choosing the item of "stopover for sightseeing" [as the reason for my  
visit].

What did the special tape [to cheat the biometric fingerprint scanner]  
look like?

It had a floppy-rubberlike touch and was flesh colored. Nobody could  
tell at a glance [that the tape was affixed to my fingers], including  
the immigration officers.

I crumpled it into a ball and disposed of it after I left the airport.

Can you still reach the broker?

No, I can't, because his mobile phone number seems to have changed.

However, I received several phone calls from him within a week after I  
reentered Japan.

(Jan. 3, 2009)

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