I've provided it to hotel staff, Airbnb hosts, condo security, car rental places, airline staff, and more over the years. They all make copies of it digitally and physically so it's floating around out there in lots of places.
Next time I get a passport it will change anyways so I'm not sure I see the big deal even if it was a unique, never changing number.
Obviously this is easily skirted by having another person do the check in and you arriving later. I've also stayed in some guest houses in Thailand last month and they did not register me, but that doesn't mean they should have done so.
If they don't, technically you're on the hook for not registering.
open bank accounts and launder money and lead a mile long paper trail to the wrong person
Like gp says, I've handed my actual passport to every hotel I've stayed at, and they usually make a photocopy. If anyone is assuming that a photocopy of a passport is good evidence that someone is who they say they are, they're wrong. If someone is assuming that just the number proves anything, then they're more wrong.
The times I've needed my passport online to prove my identity, it was usually one of those ID processes where I need to be in front of a camera holding my actual passport.
That has nothing to do with someone else leveraging gaps in the financial system and acknowledging those gaps exist. To that i would say AML/KYC/OFAC is the joke and should just be dropped since anyone can transfer any amount of value under someone else’s ID on a computer near where the compromised ID owner is expected to live.
There are open source tools to wear someone else’s face over webcam while holding up a doctored passport at 240p resolution. Even easier with a still image. And many places do not ask for more than just the ID itself.
I don’t really understand who the denial here is helping.
You have way too much respect for the security and redundancies of the system.
Only need one account anywhere to be approved. Then you can just do a completely clearnet illicit source transfer to a crypto exchange and disappear the money into tornado.cash or Monero or whatever. The problem stays with the person whose name is on the account.
Alternatively, on Dread, people brag about maintaining funded brokerage accounts opened under other people’s names and accessed over compromised windows machines near where the physical person lives. They trading stocks and options with dollars, with the intent to deal with actual laundering later with a larger amount. There are market places for compromised windows machines by postal code and bandwidth.
And with the new COVID stuff/vaccinations, it's being shared more often even if you don't travel.
What does that have to do with anything? How is your passport information shared any more than before because of "COVID stuff/vaccinations"?
