KOTA BHARU: The Road Transport Department (JPJ) has detected a widespread scam in the forgery of fake driving licences which is still prevalent on social media to this day, said JPJ deputy director-general (management) M. Janagarajan.

He appealed to drivers to exercise more caution in obtaining driving licences and not become victims of forged licences, or which are more popularly known as 'flying licences' because they are non-valid.

"Actually this is not an issue of a 'flying licence', the real issue is forgery. The licence is not a legitimate one. It is an offence committed by scammers whereby this 'licence' has no record nor does it exist in the JPJ system.

"If a driver obtains a licence by this means, he or she doesn't actually own a valid licence and needs to remember that it is fake," he said.

He said this during a press conference after a ceremony to close a team development course for drivers of Express Bus Konsortium E-Mutiara Berhad at the Jalan Wilayah Timur Transport Academy here today.


Also present were Road Transport Academy director Mohd Kifli Ma Hassan, Kelantan JPJ director Mohd Misuari Abdullah and executive chairman of Consortium E-Mutiara Berhad Che Ibrahim Che Ismail.

Janagarajan said his department has identified many victims of licence scammers and action is being taken through the JPJ's driving licensing integrity department.

"The modus operandi of these scammers is to offer advertisements on social media saying that the document is a valid licence when in fact, it is not valid.

"Some victims make payments and, if they get lucky, are issued with what is a fake licence, while there are also victims complaining that the scammer's account is closed and cannot be traced once payment is made," he said.

He said that through cooperation with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and police, court action would be taken against suspects who scam the public.

"What the public needs to remember is that any holder of this fake licence can only use it for a short time before this forgery is detected when the driver tries to renew the driving licence the following year," he said.

-- BERNAMA