Texas Firm Selling Phony Passports for Real Money

Some Americans, hoping to avoid being singled out by terrorists while traveling abroad, are buying fake passports from a company that uses non-existent countries.

The passports sell for $135 and come complete with fake entry and exit stamps and other notations. Military personnel can buy the same artificial passports for $95 to use as a subterfuge, since they often travel with only military identification cards.

Donna Walker, whose firm International Documents Services makes the passports, said that she got the idea after Iranians took Americans hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

But she didn’t act on her idea until more Americans were singled out by terrorists through their passports or military cards.

Fake Countries

She said the attacks made her realize that U.S. citizens needed a way to hide from terrorists, even when they could not run.

The artificial passports don’t represent any actual nation. Sometimes they will purport to represent a nation under a name that has since been changed for political reasons.

Each comes with two additional pieces of documentation, such as a library card or an identification card supposedly for use inside the non-existent country.

Walker said that she talked to federal officials before making the documents.

“They said they didn’t think I could do it, but didn’t say I couldn’t do it. All the printers I talked to were scared to death to print the passports because they thought it was illegal,” she said.

More Than 100 Sold

“I finally found a printer who would do the work. Now, some of my best customers are federal officials,” she said.

A State Department spokesman in Washington told the Houston Chronicle: “We’re aware of these passports and we’re still looking at it, but we haven’t made a decision on it either way.”

Walker said she has sold more than 100 of the passports to people across the country.

“I usually try to match people’s racial type to the ‘country’ on their passport and tell them to memorize information on the document because sometimes we’ll include an artificial biography of their family and list their occupation,” Walker said.

Walker noted that she is careful about who she sells passports to and has turned some people down.

“The passports we sell pretend to be real and we hope they’re only used in a threatening situation to save the lives of the bearer.”