Businessman caught selling fake Covid-19 test results

Tran Tan Duong, 34, director of the Thien Nhan Printing Design company, has been detained for allegedly fabricating organizations' seals or documents to sell fake Covid-19 papers, provincial police said Thursday.

Duong was caught red-handed Wednesday, selling six fake Covid-19 test papers to a man in Bac Ninh for VND1 million. Several fake Covid-19 test papers and other documents were seized.

Duong has reportedly confessed that he spotted a profit-making opportunity when he saw how workers and drivers needed Covid-19 test papers to pass through checkpoints in areas with social distancing measures in place.

He first collected real Covid-19 test papers, scanned them and saved them digitally. He modified their template on his computer and used it to fill in personal information of his customers, before printing them out and faking official signatures. The forgery was done at his own company.

Police say Duong has forged and sold around 150 fake Covid-19 test papers selling them for between VND150,000-250,000 apiece.