Identification of Polymer of Counterfeit Documents

Abstract

Modern identity and travel documents, such as identity cards, driver's licenses, residence permits and passports are made entirely or partially of polycarbonate. Polycarbonate documents are well secured since polycarbonate enables incorporation of various fraud-resistant security features. Due to a wide range of temperature resistance, it is possible to individualize polycarbonate documents by laser engraving.

Various printing techniques, such as thermal printing, laser and inkjet printing, have been used for individualization of counterfeit travel and identity documents made of polymer. However, counterfeit documents made of polymers that have similar general characteristics such as polycarbonate have recently been detected where laser engraving of the photograph and data of the holder has been used.

The subject of this paper was to identify polymers used for production of counterfeit documents individualized by laser engraving.

IR- spectroscopy was used for analysis of the qualitative chemical composition of the polymer of counterfeit documents. The obtained IR-spectra were compared with the IR-spectra of the document specimen, as well as with the IR-spectra available in the European Network Forensic Science Institute database, while the search was performed using “KnowItAll” software.