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Just head on over to the Philippines. Proceed to Manila, then to a particularly dingy section of Recto Street. While you enjoy a cup of noodles or just a bit of window shopping, a street runner will magically turn a few dollars into a Medical Degree from an area university. Presto-chango … you’re a doctor.
In fact, you name the degree and it will be provided almost instantly for a few hundred pesos (less than $5).
The resulting paperwork will fool all but the best trained eye. The counterfeiters even have a list of the appropriate school officials for each year so the signatures appear valid. The fake credentials come complete with seals and, if requested, can be artificially aged in a very short time. Counterfeiters say that soaking the document in coffee does wonders for making it look old.
Even though Recto street, especially the portion of it that’s unofficially called Recto University because of the proliferance of forged degrees, is one of the most extensively police-patrolled areas in the city, law enforcement officers seem to turn their heads when it comes to the abundance of print shops and forgery studios that dot the street. Too bad, because the falsification of public documents is a crime that carries a punishment of 12 years in jail.
The medical field is not the only one affected by the countless fake credentials. Besides medical and nursing degrees, buyers can purchase accounting degrees and more. Caveat investigators!
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