What to do if Someone Wants to Photocopy Your
Passport
Vernon Coleman
Try not to let anyone
photocopy your passport or driving licence. If asked say that these documents
are not available. Offer something else. Every time you give a copy of your
passport (or any other significant personal document) to anyone, you are
endangering the security of your own identity and you are putting the nation's
security at risk. Any institution or organisation which asks you to post a
photocopy of your passport is deliberately and recklessly endangering the nation
and putting us all at risk. (This is what I tell anyone who asks me to post a
copy of my passport.)
Remember that banks, lawyers and others may need
to look at paperwork proving that you are you but they do not have a right to
make copies of documents. They can look, but they don't have the right to touch.
If you find yourself in a situation where you really do have to hand
over a copy of your passport then I suggest that you insist on faxing it or
handing over the copy in person.
Most banks and other large
organisations will have an office or branch somewhere near to you. And before
you hand over the copy of your passport insist that a named employee sign a
short document (which you can prepare beforehand) accepting receipt of the
document and taking responsibility for its care or destruction.
Oh, and
one other thing: write across the copy of your document the date and the name of
the institution receiving it. That should make it difficult for anyone else to
use the same copy.
Copyright Vernon Coleman
2011
Taken from How To Protect And Preserve Your Freedom, Identity
And Privacy by Vernon Coleman
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