Chinese woman surgically altered fingerprints for Japan entry
A 27-year old Chinese woman, deported from Japan in 2007, was allowed back in Japan after biometric scanning failed to identify her as a deportee; the reason: the skin patches from the digits on her right and left hands were removed and then re-grafted onto the matching digits of the opposite hand; she was arrested after she tried to arrange a fake marriage to a Japanese man.
A Chinese woman arrested in Japan for illegal entry had altered her fingerprints through surgery to fool a biometric security system at the airport, Japanese media reports said Monday. Tokyo police confirmed they had arrested Lin Rong, 27, for entering Japan with a fake passport a year ago and then staying on illegally.
AFP reports that local media said Lin was previously deported to China in 2007 for overstaying, but managed to sneak back into Japan last year after surgery to change the skin on her thumbs and index fingers.
The skin patches from the digits on her right and left hands were removed and then re-grafted onto the matching digits of the opposite hand, Jiji Press news agency and major newspapers reported. She told police she had paid some 100,000 yuan ($14,600) for the surgery, leading investigators to believe Chinese brokers are arranging such fingerprint changes, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily said.
A police spokesman said investigators were looking into the possibility that she had changed her fingerprints but declined to comment in detail. Reports said police noticed that her fingers had unnatural scars when Lin was arrested last month for faking a marriage with a Japanese man.
Japan’s airport security system matches the fingerprints of incoming foreigners to a database of wanted criminals and past deportees.
