Forged reference letters found available for sale on mainland platform

Police say at least nine people are found guilty of creating forged academic documents in recent years. An investigation by TVB News has found mainland agencies selling fake reference letters from top global universities online.

Academic reference letters are often a requirement for students who wish to study a postgraduate or doctoral degree. But have you ever thought such letters can be brought online?

On this mainland e-commerce platform, an agency advertises fake academic reference letters. They say the customised letters will be "written" by academics from the world's top 100 universities, such as Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford. To obtain such a document, customers need to pay a minimum of 4,000 yuan.

Another agency claims they could contact "world-class" scholars to write reference letters before sending the documents using the domain of ".edu", helping to suggest they come from an educational institution. Customers who pick that package must pay 8,000 US dollars, roughly 62,000 Hong Kong dollars. Based on the list provided by the agency, TVB News emailed six professors from universities, including Cambridge and Harvard, and asked them about the matter. Our reporter received four replies -- all of them claim their identity have been stolen.

Our reporter also asked a cybersecurity expert on the issue of fake email domain. The expert says not all regions are strict about the application of top-level domain, unlike Hong Kong.

Police say authorities arrested 76 people on suspicion of false academic documents between 2021 and March this year. Thirteen people have been prosecuted and nine were convicted.

Education officials also say they will have zero toleration towards those caught with fake documents.