system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How do fake passports work considering the passport numbers are linked to a government database?
gpt
Not every passport check is linked to the government database. Even those who are do not always look up all the passports they check as it takes time and may not validate all information in the database. So a passport with no entry in the government database or one which is liked to a different entry in the database will get you through a lot of passport controls. However it is not uncommon for the "fake" passport to be real valid passports just issued to someone else. Even if the passport checks are able to validate the passport it can be harder to verify that the person going through the control is the one in the passport photo.