MALACCA: A syndicate here has been selling counterfeit MyKads to many foreigners, charging them between RM4,500 and RM10,000.

A man claiming to have served in the National Registration Department (NRD) for 10 years has been offering citizenship papers and MyKads to illegal immigrants and foreigners who have overstayed.

The Star went undercover and got in touch with the man, believed to be the mastermind of the syndicate, by pretending to be an Indonesian interested in obtaining citizenship papers and a MyKad.

In recorded phone conversations, the man boasted that he had obtained genuine citizenship documents and MyKads illegally for many Indonesians and Cambodians while serving at NRD.

He asked for RM4,500 for the citizenship application and offered to give a discount if the “applicant” could find more customers.

He also told the “applicant” to provide him with four photographs and fill in a citizenship application form from the NRD.

After being turned down, the man tried to persuade the reporter to have a face-to-face meeting and submit the citizenship documents, claiming that Putrajaya would fast-track the application.

The investigating team did not respond further.

Paper trail: Applicants are told to provide photographs and fill in a citizenship application form from the NRD.

The Star learnt of the syndicate through a tip-off from the non-profit group Welfare and Social Organisation (Perbak).

Perbak had information on the case of a 17-year-old boy from Johor, Mohd Heril Abdullah, whose parents obtained a fake birth certificate for him via an “agent” in 2000.

Mohd Heril used this certificate to successfully apply for a Malaysian passport in 2011 to travel to Indonesia.

However, his MyKad application was rejected by the NRD in 2012 and he was detained for a discrepancy detected in his birth certificate.

At the same time, a reader called in last year claiming that a foreigner who had been in Malaysia for less than a year had been going around Masjid Tanah showing off what looked like a genuine MyKad.

Perbak president Muhammad Khairul Hafiz said he had heard of dozens of foreigners who bought citizenships for between RM5,000 and RM10,000.

Muhammad Khairul later tracked down a few Indonesians who had tried to buy MyKads and citizenship papers from the syndicate.

A 42-year-old Indonesian woman, who wanted to be known only as Kelly, admitted that she was among 15 Indonesians who tried to secure citizenship illegally.

She led The Star and Muhammad Khairul to Senai, Johor, to meet two others who had paid but did not get their promised citizenship from agents of the mastermind.

Kelly then led the investigating team to meet one of the agents at a housing estate in Senai.

The Star reporter pretended to be an interested buyer and obtained the phone number of the mastermind from the agent.