Birth Certificate Fraud is used for the following categories:

Child Trafficking:

According to the FBI and the Center of Missing and Exploited Children, a child goes missing in the United States every 40 seconds. 93-95% of these children are found. However, this leaves an estimated 60,000 children that go permanently missing each year. The FBI and CIC developed a DNA program in 2012 to find these children. They found a direct correlation between birth certificate fraud and the ability to traffic children inside and outside the borders of the US and Canada. Since there are limited regulations required for identifying genetic parents in passport applications for children under 16, a trafficker can easily falsify the parent and child information to create a fraudulent passport, and then traffic a child across the border for sex, labor or child military trafficking.

Illegal Immigration:

Multiple cases have been prosecuted with birth certificate fraud of  illegal immigration in adults and have been vetted as a large problem through verified and unverified sources.  (Westlaw database, Department of Human Services, etc.).

Adoption Trafficking:

Adoption trafficking is a category in which an original birth certificate has been altered with fraudulent information in order to sell the child for adoption, thereby avoiding relinquishment law. Adoption trafficking has occurred in the US since the 1920’s. Adoption trafficking involves monetary gain for altering government-issued identity. Illegal immigrant children are being adopted without the parent’s knowledge, consent or legal relinquishment, a form of trafficking. Falsification of the identity of a mother or father on the Original Birth Certificate of a child born on American soil (can also be flown in by a trafficker via other countries to give birth as well) in order to buy and sell the baby for profit is common. A mother can be paid to falsify the birth mother and or father to avoid and or tamper with relinquishment laws. Traffickers pay women to give birth and falsify the entire birth certificate to sell the baby. Adoption agencies pay women to falsify the father on birth certificates to buy and sell babies. The monetary gain for traffickers or adoption agencies to coerce or pay for birth certificate fraud can be anywhere $10,000 - $180,000 per baby.

 

Identity Theft:

The Federal Trade Commission reports that, as early as 2006, legislation was passed across the country that increased criminal charges for identity theft using children’s Original Birth Certificates and Social Security cards. However, according to various studies, approximately 10% of children’s birth certificates are fraudulently stolen and used for identity theft, annually. One study showed that an average of $400,000 of goods and services is stolen annually as a direct result of birth certificate fraud and theft of children’s identity. Children in the foster care system are particularly susceptible to birth certificate fraud.

Exploitation of Government Funds/Paternity Fraud:

Any woman who gives birth in the USA can legally falsify the father on a birth certificate. These are called The “putative presumptive father laws.” Due to this nationally recognized statute, according to both local and national departments of human services, an estimated 35-45% of all birth certificates nationwide contain false data. This leads to exploitation and an estimated 2 billion dollars per year of federal funds obtained by women for personal assistance (welfare) due to legally allowed falsification of the child/father relationship identification process. Colorado is the only state in the USA where this practice is illegal; neither the father or mother may falsify information on the Birth Certificate (C.R.S. 25-2-117.7, 25-2-118, 25-3-112.) (a result of HB15-1282.)  This law helps to prevent fraud/theft of government funds, illegal adoption and false identities of both the mother and the father on birth certificates.