Companies are offering fake employee cards for
sale |
22/06/2004 BBC News
Fake
identification and qualifications are openly for sale on the internet,
allowing a person to become "virtually anybody", a study has revealed.
Bogus proof of age, student, national ID and employee cards are all on
offer from UK companies, the report says.
The findings came from an investigation by trading standards officers
in North Yorkshire and Cumbria.
Prices ranged from £25 for a proof of age card to £240 for a set of
false exam certificates.
Trading standards
officials compiled the report after the 14-year-old son of one officer
successfully applied for a host of false documents.
They are now considering legal action against the firm providing the
false degree and GCSEs.
But they cannot act against other companies unless it can be proved the
ID was produced for fraudulent purposes.
Ruth Taylor, head of North Yorkshire's special investigations team,
said: "Clearly this is an area which needs to be tightened up.
"Our initial concern was the use of false proof of age cards but
clearly the problem is much bigger than that.
"With these cards and qualification papers, a person could be virtually
anybody."
Ron Gainsford, chief executive of the Trading Standards Institute,
described the results as "alarming".
He said: "I will be sending details of this study to the home secretary
and Gerry Sutcliffe, the DTI minister, urging them to consider new
controls over the supply of material which can be used for ID purposes.
"A simple registration of suppliers, together with rules about how they
can supply ID material, would be straightforward and easy to
enforce."
With these cards and qualification papers, a person
could be virtually anybody 
