Woman behind fake M’sian IC syndicate held
KOTA KINABALU: A 52-year-old woman behind a syndicate producing fake Malaysian identity cards was arrested as investigators from the National Registration Department (NRD) closed in on the illegal operations in the east coast of Sabah.
The arrest of the woman yesterday came after NRD investigators arrested two foreigners – the seller and a buyer – of fake Malaysian identity cards, said NRD director-general Datuk Mohamad Razin Abdullah.
He said among the fake documents seized were bank savings books, fake birth certificates and marriage certificates when they raided the woman’s house at Sedco industrial area in Sandakan at 2am.
“We believe that we have cut off the network of the syndicate,” he told reporters in Sandakan.
Mohamad Razin said NRD has arrested 13 agents since January who were operating in the east coast towns of Sandakan, Lahad Datu and Tawau.
On the woman’s arrest, he said she would usually sit in front of a restaurant in Sandakan town to wait for clients, especially those who were just arriving from southern Philippines.
“She would offer services to help the new arrivals and give them the documents,” he said.
Many of the buyers believed that the documents were genuine and used them to travel to peninsular Malaysia to seek jobs.
“These agents are targeting to cheat Filipinos, Indonesians and Pakistanis in the east coast of Sabah,” he added.
He said many victims paid between RM300 and RM6,000 for the fake MyKad while birth certificates could cost up to RM20,000.
“Many of those seeking documents were Filipinos and Indone- sians who used the papers to go to Kuala Lumpur for employment while Pakistanis bought it to stay in Sabah,” he added.
Mohamad Razin said a Pakistani was ready to buy birth certificates of children who had passed away from poor families in Semporna, Kunak and Lahad Datu.
The birth certificates would be sold to other Pakistanis for up to RM20,000 each.
“We are investigating how many such birth certificates were bought,” he said.
On the arrests of 11 suspects in Tawau on Jan 26, he said they were investigated for misusing identification documents belonging to other persons, falsifying information when making applications and using other people’s identity cards.