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Forged certificates seized by police/ courtesy of the Chungbuk Provincial Police Agency
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Forged documents are easily available online, from degree certificates and academic records to help 20-somethings to get a job to Family Register entries identifying married men as single. They cost between W300,000 and W1.2 million (US $1=W926).
¡ß Shopping online
Typing ¡°certificate¡± in the search bar of an Internet portal produces the URL of a popular online forum that specializes in forging certificates. On the front page of there is an advert for ¡°resident registration cards and driver¡¯s licenses that are 100 percent identical to real ones,¡± promising ¡°after-sales service for three months¡± and ¡°graduation and enrollment certificates available.¡± Besides that, there is only the e-mail address where customers can reach the forger. Some 30 minutes after sending an e-mail to the address, the Chosun Ilbo got a call from the forger. Asked to make a college graduation certificate, he offered to make one in an hour and send the scanned file by e-mail. "You can pay after you¡¯ve had a look at it,¡± he said.
A resident registration card or driver's license costs W400,000, academic certificates W450,000 and other kinds of certificates W600,000-700,000. A forger working in China says the sale of forged certificates has been taking place online for a long time. "We have a pretty well established system now, and we send our customers scanned files or video clips of forged documents first before they make payment,¡± he said. He added there are some 100 forgers working in China, but only three or four of them can produce high quality fakes that are identical to authentic documents. "If they demand W300,000 or less, you can¡¯t expect quality product," he said.
¡ß Customers
People from all walks of life buy the forgeries. Some 120 customers Cheongju Heungdeok Police detained on charges of buying forged certificates on Wednesday included doctors, crammer teachers, executives with local dailies, jobseekers and college students. They had bought the forgeries to find a job, get promoted or just to show off. One dentist identified as Koh paid W600,000 for a counterfeit certificate of an implant seminar at Michigan State University to deceive patients. A married man identified as Park (33), who has had an affair with a single woman for seven years, paid W380,000 for a fake family register to persuade her that he was still single when she became suspicious.
When the forger is caught, police can catch their customers by tracking their bank accounts. A woman identified as Kim says she bought a forged degree certificate from a prestigious university here for W250,000 to get a job. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I could get arrested too when police find the forger," she said.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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