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Swedish personal data and ID documents being sold online: report

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Swedish personal data and ID documents being sold online: report
File photo of Swedish passports. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT

Swedish personal data and ID documents are being sold and rented out online via Russian-language forums in Sweden, according to a report by Sveriges Radio's Ekot show.

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Ekot spoke with a man who offers the rental of his Swedish personal identity number (personnummer) and bank account for 2,500 kronor ($278) a month.

"I have documents that I can provide. So I'll be on the contract, while you will work in peace and get the salary," he told an Ekot reporter.

Through that method, a person without papers in Sweden can appear to be working legally.

READ ALSO: Sweden launches fake passport crackdown

It is generally difficult for lone men from former Soviet states to be granted asylum in Sweden. On the forum for Russian speaking people, there are several options for cheating a way to work and live in the Nordic nation. According to sources Ekot consulted, the use of fake documents is widespread:

"I think this happens in 70 percent of the workplaces I know. Among my acquaintances almost everyone agrees on that."

There is evidence that the April 7th Stockholm terror attack suspect Rakhmat Akilov used false documents in Sweden.

READ ALSO: Who is the real Rakhmat Akilov?

Basic documents can start at 500 kronor ($55), while Swedish citizenship is sold for close to 100,000 kronor ($11,120), Ekot reports.

"It's definitely not good and not something we want to happen, that's obvious. We’ll have to see if this is something we're already working on or something new we've been told about," Ingegerd Widell, a spokesperson from Swedish Tax Agency Skatteverket's population registry told the show. 

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