Gangs of forgers are selling hundreds of fake Hong Kong identity cards each month in cities across Guangdong, raising fears over the integrity of genuine cards, the Sunday Morning Post has discovered.
An investigation has revealed that a basic ID card can be bought on the streets in Shenzhen for as little as 250 yuan (HK$235), while a more sophisticated version using personal details stolen from genuine cards sell for three times that price.
Police say that while the quality of the copies is not good enough to foil checks carried out by their officers or the Immigration Department, the bogus cards are good enough to fool banks and shops and business registration procedures.
Last night Democratic Party lawmaker James To Kun-sun called on the government to hold urgent talks with the Shenzhen authorities to clamp down on the trade, saying it was an attack on the integrity of official Hong Kong documentation. Mr To, who is chairman of the Legislative Council's security panel, described it as a very serious problem.
'It's an attack on the integrity of Hong Kong legal documents. If people lose faith in the credibility of our ID documents, our commercial interests and legal credibility would be under threat,' said Mr To. A Post reporter was offered a basic fake Hong Kong ID card for about 250 yuan, and a 'top grade' copy for 600 yuan, by a man who said his name was Li Ming and who claimed to work for a company called South Asia Evidence (Group) Limited.
'We will use the personal data of a real Hong Kong resident for the grade-A fake. All things will be the same apart from the picture,' he said.