Apr 13, 2007 01:58 PM Louise Brown Education Reporter Five Chinese students in Canada on student visas have been charged with one of the most ambitious counterfeit document rings in Ontario history. York Regional Police have charged the four men and one woman with producing "hundreds, if not thousands" of fake passports, visas, driver's licenses and university degrees over several years and selling them over the Internet, complete with a breezy price list. "In my 30 years on the job, I've never seen forged university degrees or mark transcripts - they even did high school diplomas," said Detective Fred Kerr this morning at a press conference where many of the fake degrees and documents were on display. "This was quite a brazen operation. They were charging $18,000 for immigration papers and enough other documents that you could create an entire false identity," said Police Chief Armand La Barge. "It was an incredible undertaking and appears to have been going for several years. It's alarming that there is a criminal market for these kinds of documents." York plainclothes police stumbled on the counterfeit ring recently while investigating a string of car thefts and through what La Barge calls "good old-fashioned police work," uncovered the operation in a home on Eastpine Drive in Markham. Police confiscated five computers, two laptops and several printers from the house, said Detective Matthew Ma, an expert on hi-tech crime, "and one of the printers still held a false Chinese passport and a York University marks transcript." "I've never seen quality like this," said Ma. "I can't tell the difference between the false and the originals. We believe they scanned the originals and then added people's names." Police said they have no idea yet how many documents were sold over the years, or which university's degrees were reproduced more than others. "But the confiscated computers hold 700 gigs of memory, and it takes one hour for an officer to go through one gig of memory - so that tells you the scope of the material we have to go through," said Superintendent Wayne Kalinski. Police would not say which university or college the accused students are enrolled in, when they came to Canada, or if their own credentials are rock-solid. "To the best of our knowledge, their own student visas were valid," said La Barge. "But given the quality of their forgeries, we can't be sure until further investigation," George Granger, executive director of the Ontario Universities' Application Centre, said fake degrees hurt not only the universities' reputation but threaten the value of degrees earned by the majority of hardworking students. He said while most universities keep letterhead and transcript forms in locked vaults, these forgeries managed to reproduce even such security tools as the water marks on degree paper meant to prove they are geniuine. "With the advancements in computer technology, I suspect universities will be reviewing our measures to protect the integrity of our degrees." http://www.thestar.com/News/article/202874
I could have saved a lot of money getting my degree from them. I didn't learn anything in college anyway.
Erm, they aren't exactly helping the rest of the Asians with their actions; especially if you live in Canada and wants to travel abroad, one can imagine how the customs will pick you out and keep you at the airport/border for a few hours in order to check your paperwork. -huh
lmao... some how.. I sensed mexicans were going to get mentioned... -lol ever since that latin chick... Si, pero he films me take a shower and we can sue him for dinero...
haha.. if those ppl can really get a job and survive with a fake cert, then there probably really isnt a need for one in the first place..
um then theres no real police work, your just lucky you found it... *thumbs up* for the good work -rolleyes
Man, these people who did get the fake degrees won't last in the reality. Unless if it for bragging right, still it not cool.
