A woman was recently arrested in the City of Naga by the National Bureau of Investigation Central Visayas Regional Office after she allegedly printed and sold fake Bureau of Internal Revenue Tax Identification Number cards and PhilHealth IDs.
The NBI said the suspect, Verlyn Subrian, 29, a resident of Barangay East Poblacion, Naga, was arrested in an entrapment operation and already admitted to having been selling fake IDs for two years now and had a regular customer base.
Of course, hers isn’t the only such business. Around three months ago, Cebu City authorities also noted the spread of fake Person With Disability IDs.
It would seem that making and selling fake IDs is a lucrative enterprise. Fake IDs allow people not just to assume the identity of another, but also to get benefits, discounts, and other privileges that are otherwise not due them.
It’s also now easy to do; anyone with a printer, a laminator, and an ID format or template can make something that can pass off as an ID with those who aren’t scrutinizing. It’s also now easy to reach out to potential customers using the internet. There is also no lack of potential customers considering how many people want to keep certain transactions secret.
Authorities should see the proliferation of such criminal enterprise as a warning that there will be more to deal with in the future.
We are sure that those who are into this nefarious business are looking to eventually provide fake national IDs owing to the fact that these are easy to fake, having no signature of the ID owner at all. Of course, if that happens we can expect even more incidents of fraud to happen.
And considering that the mid-term elections are closing in and money, favors, among other things are expected to change hands, not to mention “extracurricular” election activities, we can only imagine how many people will be looking to get as well as looking to provide fake IDs of all kinds.