Police investigations are underway into a series of fraud and forgery cases involving a crew of people using fake ID cards to make instalment plan purchases. Facebook
After numerous recent complaints, police investigations are underway into a series of fraud and forgery cases involving a crew of people using fake ID cards to make instalment plan purchases.
National police spokesman Chhay Kim Khoeun told The Post on December 27: “As law enforcement officers, we must take action and investigate each complaint. Police are currently searching for the perpetrators of these offences. This is the extent to which we can comment on an ongoing investigation.”
“There have been many complaints from victims. These cases remain open, and police are continuing to look into them,” he added.
Kim Khoeun urged the public, and especially merchants, to be careful to avoid being deceived by fraudsters and to cooperate with police in taking timely action to stop such criminals when they’re detected.
The recent cases drew public attention after cheated merchants posted accounts of the events on social media. Victims have filed complaints with the police and attached photos of suspects who each used multiple names.
Sok Net, a mobile phone shop owner who said he was cheated out of 10 or so mobile phones in just over half a month, told The Post that there was a group of perpetrators using falsified ID cards to make purchases. At least 20 phone shops had been cheated in a similar way, he said.
“They came to my shop to buy a phone by instalments. I’ve heard of motorbike shop owners also being cheated like this. We know this because we inspected documents from other shops. We saw the same people in the photos, but their ID card numbers were different so we knew that the cards are fake. We need police to take action in these cases to stop them from deceiving others,” Net confirmed.
A senior officer in the General Department of Identification at the Ministry of Interior who asked not to be named told The Post on December 27 that the law does not permit taking individuals’ ID cards for use as collateral in exchanges.
He explained that confirming the validity of an ID card for proper uses must be done by authorities, and the public may make use of provincial one-window service offices for the purpose.
The officer also urged residents, particularly merchants like mobile phone or motorbike vendors, to be very cautious before accepting an ID card or other documents in exchange for goods.
