Police uncover fake vaccination certs syndicate

JOHOR BAHRU – Police have uncovered a syndicate selling fake Covid-19 vaccination certificates following the arrests of three workers of a private clinic and five buyers of the false document.

Johor police chief Datuk Kamarul Zaman Mamat said the arrests were made after the owner of the clinic lodged a report about the activity at about 10.53pm, last Sunday.

“Upon receiving information from the complainant, police detained eight suspects aged between 24 and 42 around Johor Bahru, three whom were the employees of the clinic and five buyers who got the digital certificates without being injected with the vaccine.

“Eight handphones were also seized from the suspects and five of them which belonged to the buyers, contained images of the fake digital certificate and the conversations between the clinic’s staff and the buyers.

“Besides that, police have also seized the computers which were believed to have been used to register the details of the recipients of the certificates in the MySejahtera system.

“We will analyse all the seized items to identify who are the others that had received the fake certificates in their MySejahtera without receiving the vaccine,” he said in a press conference at the Johor Police Contingent headquarters, here, yesterday.

The syndicate, he said was believed to have used agents or representatives from Facebook or WhatsApp groups to find those who wanted to get their hands on the digital certificates without actually having to get vaccinated.

He said the buyers were those who needed to have a digital certificate in their MySejahtera app for purposes of travelling and the anti-vaxxers.

“The clinic’s staff who had access to make registrations in the MySejahtera app had received between RM300 and RM650 for each fake certificate without the buyers having to inject the vaccine.

“The agents were paid a commission of RM125 for each digital certificate,” he said.

He added that police had also identified at least 22 more buyers of the false document and are in the midst of tracking them down.

He said all the 22 buyers must turn themselves in immediately before the police take action.

Kamarul Zaman said two of the clinic's staff were detained on Monday and have been remanded for four days from Tuesday while the other one who was detained on Tuesday has been remanded from Wednesday.

“The case is being investigated under Sections 420 and 511 of the Penal Code as well as Section 22 (d) of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act,” he said.