The past few weeks have been dominated by news reports about the alarming number of drivers and motorcycle riders with their fake driver’s licenses (DL).
It's thought these drivers and motorcycle riders got their fake licenses through social media pages that offer “legitimate DLs” without the need to go through the LTO’s process. The services cost as much as PhP9,000. This is nothing new. In fact, back in 2019, we reported on such an online scam.
The propagation of fake licenses is already a cause for concern for the Department of Transportation (DOTr), alarming the transportation secretary himself, Arthur Tugade. The LTO, under assistant secretary, Edgar Galvante, reports that the agency is already “closing in” on the people behind these schemes and hopes to put an end to the proliferation of fake DLs.
“In the previous one which was posted by someone in Region 6, we engaged the one who offered the service and set up a meeting with her. Together with the PNP, we deployed personnel to the rendezvous area and were able to arrest the woman who, during the investigation, pointed to her cohorts,” said Galvante.
He added that, the agency is relentless in its efforts to put an end to these syndicates. They are reminding the public to only transact with their offices, and more recently, through their LTMS online portal, which offers some services at the comfort of your home via a desktop, laptop, or even your mobile phone.
“Every time [posts like these are] seen on social media, we immediately issue an advisory to the public, informing [them] that this is a scam and should not be patronized,” added the LTO chief.
MotoPinas.com has also asked if this may be the work of some corrupt employees or officials within the LTO itself, who might be conspiring with these online scammers by supplying them with information (e.g.: security features, serial numbers) necessary to produce believable fake driver’s licenses.
The chief has not yet responded to our query as of this writing. We’ll definitely update our readers once the chief has responded to us.
How to spot the not
Of course, prevention is better than cure, so please, NEVER transact with anyone outside of the LTO office.
If you think you can get away with a fake license, think again. We discuss here how to easily spot a fake license, even the newer, more sophisticated ones.
You can also watch the video in this story to find out how LEOs determine if your DL is fake or not. There’s really no way you can fool the system, so better go through the process than going to the short cut. Doing the short cut may be more costly if you’re caught.
