Fake ID gang arrested in China with more than a million forged documents
- Police detain 62 after raid uncovers ‘mountain’ of half-finished counterfeit credentials
- Identity cards, passports, birth certificates, driving licences, documents of all kinds were couriered to customers across 20 provinces
More than a million fake identity documents were seized and 62 people arrested by Chinese police after an investigation into a counterfeit gang operating across 20 provinces.
The fake papers included all kinds of certificates, from residents’ identity cards through to birth certificates, passports, English test certifications and driving licences.
Authorities were alerted to the network when a man in the southeastern province of Anhui was caught using a fake ID card at an English test in March.
A police investigation found he had bought the card through WeChat, the smartphone-based social media tool, and identified the seller as a man surnamed Liu, living in Loudi, Hunan province, in central China.
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A raid on Liu’s home in August uncovered mountains of half-finished fake credentials, carefully sorted into piles according to province, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.