"There is no way to nullify the lost ID cards. People can only apply for a new card," an officer at the Xuanwu branch of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, surnamed Duan, told the Global Times Tuesday, adding that lost ID cards will still be valid even when the new card is made, meaning that anyone who finds or steals the card can use it as usual.
If someone loses their ID card, they get issued a new one, but the old one isn't cancelled, potentially allowing a thief to commit crimes online.
"An ID card is sold at 200 yuan ($32.70). I have over 7,000 valid ID cards at hand, and most of them are from pickpockets at train stations who sell the ID cards directly to me, so they are 100 percent real. All you need to do is to pick out a card which looks like you the most and tell me, I'll deliver it to you," Zhang Tuan, an ID card trader in Beijing, told a Global Times reporter posing as a buyer, adding that most buyers bought them in order to apply for credit cards.
Reassuring everyone that "according to Chinese law", this type of identity theft is illegal (which probably works as well as the law that says child sex abuse is illegal), the Ministry of Public Affairs promises to take "strict actions" to fight ID card trafficking. Without actually telling anyone what their plan might be, although it is pointed out that newer ID cards use fingerprinting technology that everyone is certain that all the banks check thoroughly.
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