The National Registration Department (JPN) has uncovered a scheme involving fake MyKad cards being sold for around RM350, as well as the misuse of other people’s identities to secure employment, during an operation at a frozen food processing factory in Pulau Indah on Wednesday night.
A 40-year-old Indonesian woman, who only wished to be known as Yanti, claimed she did not realise that using a fake identity card was an offence. She said she was told the document would make her daily affairs in Malaysia easier.
“I don’t know who made the identity card. I was only told that having this card would make things easier for me,” she said when met at the operation site.
“I have a passport, but it has expired. With this card, I felt safer. I regret it because I didn’t know it was illegal,” she added.
During the same operation, authorities also exposed a tactic where foreign workers used another person’s identity to obtain jobs, including showing altered MyKad images stored on mobile phones instead of presenting physical documents.
Some individuals were also found claiming that the identity cards belonged to relatives living in Malaysia.
JPN Director-General Datuk Badrul Hisham Alias said the operation was based on a month-long intelligence effort involving officers from Putrajaya, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Negeri Sembilan, with assistance from the Immigration Department and the Labour Department.
A total of 61 individuals were inspected, including 25 Malaysians holding MyKad and 36 foreigners detained for suspected use of fake or borrowed identity cards to gain employment.
He said of those detained, 32 were women and four were men aged between 18 and 50, all Indonesian nationals.
Preliminary investigations revealed several methods used, including borrowing MyKad from friends, using altered identity cards with replaced photographs, and purchasing fake MyKad for about RM350 each.
Suspects were found to store edited images of identity cards on their phones and present them during job registration processes.
Cases involving expired passports and visa misuse were also detected, which fall under immigration offences.
Authorities confirmed all seized fake identity cards will be used as evidence for investigation and prosecution.
JPN also reminded employers not to rely solely on digital images of identity documents when hiring workers, stressing the need for physical verification of MyKad and valid travel documents.
The case is being investigated under Regulation 25(1)(e) of the National Registration Regulations 1990.
Meanwhile, Immigration Department enforcement also inspected 66 individuals at the same location, with 33 found to have committed various offences under the Immigration Act 1959/63.
