Beware of fake documents

Recently, the acts of making and using fake papers and documents to defraud and appropriate property have become quite complicated; it is worth mentioning that the fake papers are made very sophisticatedly, difficult to detect, causing negative impacts on security and order.

Subject Pham Oanh Kieu at the police station.

Nga Bay City Police have just issued decisions to prosecute the case and prosecute Pham Oanh Kieu (born in 1982), residing in Dong An A Hamlet, Dai Thanh Commune, Nga Bay City, for the crime of using fake documents of agencies and organizations.

Previously, with the intention of appropriating property, from February 2023, Kieu went on Facebook to order an unknown person to forge two sets of documents regarding the grant of resettlement land in the Cai Con Flood-Resilient Residential Area. These included a copy of the cadastral map and a decision on the allocation of resettlement land with forged stamps of state management agencies.

After receiving the above fake documents, Kieu found buyers and executed contracts to buy and sell houses and land with Ms. L. for 1.2 billion VND in order to appropriate the property.

According to authorities, in recent years, the province has discovered and handled many cases of counterfeiting seals and documents as well as using fake seals and documents of agencies and organizations.

Specifically, in 2023, the whole province fought and cracked down on 9 cases/8 defendants for the crime of forging seals and documents of agencies and organizations and using fake seals and documents of agencies and organizations. Through the cracked cases, it can be seen that document forgery is very diverse and rich. Subjects can forge diplomas, certificates, land use right certificates, resettlement land acceptance decisions, vehicle registration papers and even lottery tickets... to commit fraud.

In December 2023, the Provincial People's Court tried three defendants, Tran Sang Trong, Tran Van Vi and Ho Thanh Son, also in Nga Bay city, for fraud, appropriation of property and forgery of documents of agencies and organizations.

Tran Sang Trong, who used to own a pawn shop, used the trick of punching the chassis and engine numbers of Suzuki Sport vehicles, then forged the vehicle registration certificates to sign sales contracts, thereby defrauding and appropriating nearly 4 billion VND from the victims.

Previously, in May 2023, Phan Thanh Thuy (born in 1983), residing in Binh Minh town, Vinh Long province, went to a notary office in Chau Thanh A district to make a contract authorizing the transfer of a land use right certificate. During the process of making the contract, the notary suspected that the certificate was fake, so he reported it to the police.

Through appraisal, it was determined that the land use right certificate was forged sophisticatedly, so the authorities began an investigation.

According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thang, Chairman of the Provincial Notary Association, currently, it is quite easy to order fake documents online, with a high level of completion, which poses many challenges for notary organizations. Because every day, notary offices receive and perform notarization and authentication of many transactions related to all kinds of personal documents, diplomas, certificates and documents associated with valuable assets such as land use right certificates, vehicle registrations, etc.

According to Mr. Thang, there are types of fake documents that must be inspected and scientifically and technically examined before they can be confirmed. The difficulty for notaries is that there are currently no tools to support the inspection and handling of fake documents, nor is there a mechanism for sharing information and data from related sectors, especially in the land sector, which can easily lead to potential risks.

“In the process of notarizing contracts and procedures, especially documents related to land, notary organizations must use many professional measures to detect, prevent, and not let cases of using fake documents for bad purposes slip through,” Mr. Thang shared.

Currently, according to Article 341 of the 2015 Penal Code (amended in 2017), the crime of forging seals and documents of agencies and organizations or using fake seals and documents of agencies and organizations, depending on the nature and severity of the crime, can be prosecuted for criminal liability with a maximum of 7 years in prison, in addition to being fined up to 50 million VND.

According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Liem, Director of the Provincial People's Procuracy, through the fight against crime, it has been shown that the tricks of the subjects who forge documents are increasingly sophisticated, the types of fake documents they use are very difficult to detect. At the same time, the subjects can also easily order through transactions on social networks.

Therefore, to proactively prevent and combat this type of crime, Mr. Liem said that the authorities need to regularly provide information on the forms, signs, and ways to identify fake documents. On the part of each citizen, it is necessary to be careful, carefully check the documents when conducting transactions or ask the authorities to check the authenticity to avoid becoming victims of property fraud.

Article and photos: BB

Source