On November 24, a 55-year-old man was sentenced to 15 months in prison for fabricating degrees from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
By using fake degrees he managed to secure high-paying jobs and even a CFO position in one of his jobs.
55-year-old Yeoh Keng Swee pled guilty to three counts of forgery which includes fake credentials such as law, engineering and accounting
How he did it?
He went online to look for the degrees. But instead of using photoshop, he used a method that is considered older fashion.
He prints the degrees he found online, pastes his name over the person’s name and makes a photocopy of it.
As a photocopy prints flat it can hardly detect an additional piece of paper over it therefore the machine will not print the outline of the paper that was pasted on.
Catch Me If You Can
After 12 years of doing this, he was finally caught at a job interview in 2021, he tried to apply for a position at a construction company but he was caught.
He used photocopy versions of the certifications and provided them to the interviewer.
During the interview, he could not answer any of the questions that were related to the job he was applying for. He later found out that the interviewer would like to verify his qualifications and he tried to withdraw his application.
He even “admitted” by telling the interviewer to destroy his documents.
Positions he held or tried to apply for
- Chief Financial Officer
- Finance Director
- construction project manager.
Documents he forged
- NTU, a Master of Science in Business Administration degree
- Bachelor of Accountancy degree
- An engineering degree