Despite the relaxed SOPs announced by the government for fully vaccinated individuals, interdistrict and interstate travels are yet to be allowed. And recently there have been many cases of non-vaccinated individuals or those travelling without proper documentation being caught at roadblocks.
On 5 August, four teenagers were caught by the police in Johor Bahru for selling fake MITI (International Trade And Industry Ministry) and employers’ approval letters online.
Two out of the four suspects are women aged between 16 to 19, and they were all involved in a syndicate that is believed to have been active somewhere around March this year. They advertised their products and services through social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WeChat, according to Bernama.
Johor police chief, Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay further added,
“The fake documents are sold at a price of RM150 each, with a commission of between RM50 and RM100 for each document sold.”
Not only that, what made things tricky for the police were the QR codes that were added to every document. This was done to avoid the police from detecting fakes at the roadblock inspections. However, the police managed to spot the loophole when the bearer of the letter isn’t the company’s employee listed in the fake letter. This has led the police to believe that an insider job is involved, which is currently still under investigation, according to a report by Berita Harian.
During their operations, the syndicate had managed to sell around 205 forged documents, which brought in a profit of around RM37,500.
In the meantime, Datuk Ayob Khan also revealed that the police are currently on the lookout for a 21-year-old man known as Nicholas Chai Jia Han, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the syndicate.
He also reminded the public to apply for proper travel letters at the nearest police station should they need to make a trip outside the state or district.
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