Fake fingerprints let woman slip through customs

by Sean McLachlan on

A Chinese woman who had been deported from Japan for overstaying her visa wanted to get back in so badly that she had plastic surgery to change her fingerprints. Japanese customs officials never discovered Lin Rong, 27, was back in the country until she was arrested on a different charge and her true identity revealed.

When police arrested Ms. Lin last month for allegedly faking a marriage to a Japanese man, presumably to guarantee her stay in Japan, they noticed she had odd scars on her thumbs and index fingers. Investigators said she confessed to having paid $15,000 to have her fingerprints switched by removing the skin of her fingertips and grafting it back on the opposite hand.

She’s now being charged for the very new crime of biometric fraud. Japan is one of many countries to use a biometric recognition system to check fingerprints, and so it’s inevitable that something like this would happen sooner or later. In fact, it’s not even the first time. Last year a South Korean woman managed to fool the machines by putting a special tape on her fingers.

The United States uses a biometric recognition system too. There’s no word on what expensive piece of hardware is going to be needed to replace what’s already become a beatable system.

Rolling luggage / portable scooter guarantees you’ll hurt yourself at the airport

by Scott Carmichael on

How many times have you walked from gate B2 to B78 wondering whether there could possibly be a quicker way to make your connecting flight? Well, the folks at German company Micro Mobility obviously had that same question – because they invented the Trolley Scooter. The scooter combines one of those lightweight folding scooters with a piece of Samsonite luggage.

End result is a bag that can be pulled through the airport and turn into a personal mobility scooter. Sadly, it isn’t powered (other than human power), but with enough momentum, you may be able to plow down a couple of fellow passengers on your way to the gate.

The bag itself looks rather small, but in the photo, they do show a laptop, shoes and some clothes, so it may be just right for a quick overnight trip.

What do you think? Sheer brilliance or sheer stupidity awaiting a personal injury lawsuit?

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(Crunchgear via Gizmodo)

TSA releases operating procedures document – fails to redact top secret information

by Scott Carmichael on

Recently, the Transportation Security Administration finally released a document containing their “standard operating procedures”. The document describes the basics on how the agency operates airport security. It’s all pretty boring stuff, and despite page after page of details, there isn’t much in the document that hasn’t already been discussed before.

What makes this document interesting is that the TSA redacted portions of it deemed classified and only available to people on a “need to know” basis. Unfortunately, the person in charge of the redacting this classified information failed to pay attention during Adobe PDF class, because he or she hid the information under a simple black box. This is the dumbest way to hide information, because the text itself is still under that box, and can be viewed with a simple cut/paste job.

The document in question has already been pulled by the agency, but many sites grabbed it and posted it themselves. I’ll stop short of linking directly to the document in question, but I’m pretty sure a quick Google search can help you out.

Update: as a commenter points out, the release of this document was not intended for the general public, but was still placed out in the open anyway…

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Heathrow invites you to kiss under the world’s largest mistletoe

by Katie Hammel on

Remember that scene from the movie “Love Actually” that takes place in Heathrow Airport? The one where everyone is arriving and being greeted with big hugs and happy kisses from their loved ones? That may be what Heathrow really looks like now that the airport has hung the world’s largest mistletoe.

The 10X8 structure, which weighs 43kg, will hang in Terminal 5 through December (and according to the Heathrow press release), other giant mistletoe will be hung in Terminals 1, 3, and 4.

Heathrow officials expect nearly 3 million people to arrive at Heathrow in the coming month, with close to 500,000 of them coming between December 19th and December 24th alone. The airport is hoping that 2 million kisses will take place beneath the giant mistletoe this month.

Dulles customs agents arrest man for his coke and chicken smuggle trick

by Scott Carmichael on

Washington Dulles customs agents arrested a man last week for trying to smuggle cooked chicken into the US stuffed with cocaine. The haul was just 60 grams, but that is still worth $4,300 on the street.

While smuggling cocaine isn’t too rare, customs officials do come across new methods every week.

Of course, smuggling your stash in cooked chicken is particularly stupid, as department of agriculture cops are always on the lookout for meat in your luggage. You might as well wear a sign telling them you are a smuggler.

Some other wacky finds at the border we’ve covered here on Gadling: