The cost of fraud is staggering. The average organization loses 10% of revenue from counterfeiting and it has been estimated that the value of counterfeit goods globally exceeds 1.7 trillion dollars annually – over 2% of the world’s total current economic output. Document counterfeiting contributes to this fraud and represents a problem that is far greater than a financial loss. Personal security, domestic security and global security.
Counterfeit documents are more readily available in today’s digital age. Furthermore as physical and virtual documents are connected, the complexity of the situation increases. Governments are seeing more sophisticated counterfeits and fraudulent use of their issued documents – travel documents, identity documents and currency. In turn, counterfeit and fraudulent documents can be used to obtain legitimately issued documents. These fraudulently obtained but legitimately issued documents can be used for travel and financial crimes.
