A prestigious education means a lot in Singapore, especially given the huge emphasis the Singapore system places on good grades and good schools.
But what if you could buy a good degree from a renown Singapore education institution for as little as $4000?
According to a New Paper report, undercover reporters have learnt today that fake degrees from National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Management University (SMU) were on sale online in popular internet forums.
The New Paper's team reportedly approached one such counterfeit degree seller online. Like most counterfeiters, these people were based in Singapore and China.
Unsurprisingly, most of the buyers were usually foreign nationals, mainly from the PRC. This is why counterfeiters target internet forums frequented by foreigners.
The reporters soon found out that all it took to get a newly minted fake degree was a brief online chat, a face-to-face exchange and some money.
There were more sophisticated websites which offered counterfeiting services such s fake degrees, transcripts and identification documents.
2 of these sites offered fake degrees and diplomas from more local institutions, including NUS, NTU, SMU, SIM University, Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS)and Temasek Polytechnic.
Most vendors restrict correspondence with customers to instant messaging on QQ, an instant messenger program commonly used in China. This is to evade detection by the authorities.
All a customer has to do is send a QQ message to a customer service officer who will facilitate the transaction.
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