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Casino loan sharks or identity fraudsters are feared to be behind a spate of "lost" Chinese passports.
The Weekend Herald has found 331 advertisements for lost Chinese passports placed in Chinese-language newspapers over the past three years.
The file is only a selection of those that have run in the classified section of the Auckland-based Mandarin Pages, with up to a dozen different lost passports advertised on some days.
The adverts usually feature a passport number and are a notification that they have been lost. There are no contact details for the document's return.
The number of lost passport advertisements does not tally with those reported to missing to the Auckland Central Police Station, where it is rare and only two have been called in in the past six months. The advertisements, which are still running this month, were found during a Weekend Herald investigation into loan sharks and alleged criminal behaviour associated with Auckland's SkyCity casino.
The investigation was told of gamblers, often Chinese students, who gave their passports to loan sharks as "security", an illegal practice.
It revealed that loan sharks operate in the casino, reportedly lending up to tens of thousands of dollars a time, charging 7 per cent interest a week.
Chinese consul Liu Xiaowei could not explain why so many passports had been advertised as lost, or why they had not been reported to police in similar numbers.
Mr Liuconfirmed that an advertisement had been a requirement for a lost passport to be replaced, but said this was no longer necessary. It was now "unlikely" that a lost Chinese passport would be replaced without a police report.
A Mandarin Pages staff member said the adverts, which cost $10, were a "service" for those who had lost their passports, and believed they were still a requirement.
The newspaper appears six days a week and has a print run of 17,000.
National MP Pansy Wong said she had noticed the lost passport advertisements and believed loan sharks could be behind them.
She had recently helped a Chinese woman gambler who had given her passport to loan sharks and was unable to pay to get it back.
Mrs Wong was concerned that passports lost to loan sharks could be used for identity theft.
She was also worried that "losing" passports to get new ones was an immigration scam, particularly if the passports contained New Zealand visas.
The Government admitted last month that illegal immigrants may have slipped into New Zealand because of gaps in screening for identity fraud.
An Auditor-General's report found the Immigration Service had a huge backlog of fraud investigations, poor staff and technology resourcing and inconsistent record-keeping.
The report said a person using a false identity "pose[d] significant risks to the country, including financial, terrorism, health, legal or criminal risks".
Api Fiso, border security manager for the Department of Labour, said evidence of a lost passport was required before a new visa - with a new label number - was issued.
A "document alert" was then placed on the lost passport, which would be activated if it was used for immigration purposes.
Mr Fiso said an employer, public servant or someone such as a bank employee could check whether a visa or passport was authentic by doing a "careful face to photo check".
He said false use of passports within New Zealand was a "police issue".
Mr Fiso said photo checks - done by airline staff - were also a way of detecting if the passport was fake.
Asked if he was concerned about the number of "lost" Chinese passports, he said the department would act only on "concrete information".
Missing Passports
* At least 331 advertisements for lost Chinese passports.
* Up to a dozen a day advertised, but not reported to police.
* Chinese Consulate-General cannot explain why so many are lost.
* Chinese gamblers give passports to casino loan sharks as security.
* Fears "lost" passports are being used for identity fraud.
