PUTRAJAYA: The Immigration Department today demonstrated how Enforcement Cards (E-Cards) are forged by syndicates for sale to illegal foreign workers.
Its director general Datuk Mustafar Ali, who demonstrated the process for reporters here, said forging an E-Card takes as little as five minutes.
On a related matter, he said that the Department crippled a major document forgery syndicate with the arrest yesterday of two Bangladeshis in Ampang who are suspected of having produced forged documents for foreign workers, especially from Bangladesh, over the past year.
One of them, known as the “Professor”, is believed to have been the mastermind of the syndicate which netted hundreds of thousands of ringgit through selling fake documents.
"Equipment and materials confiscated by the Department showed that they had only invested RM30,000 in the (illegal enterprise) – but gained hundreds of thousands of ringgit in the last year.
"Our investigation revealed that (they were making) between RM50,000 and RM70,000 a month, (as they charged) between RM1,000 and RM4,000 per document," he told a press conference earlier.
Mustafar added that based on the evidence collected, it is believed that the syndicate was the biggest in supplying forged documents in the country.
Other than E-Cards, other documents falsified were Visit Pass-Temporary Employment (PLKS), passports, student passes, social visit passes and CIDB (Construction Industry Development Board) cards.
Mustafar said the department is zeroing-in on more individuals believed to be involved in the syndicate.