VietNamNet Bridge - Getting a driving license in many southern provinces such as Soc Trang, An Giang, Long An and Binh Thuan is just a piece of cake, as long as you have enough money.

Pay VND 13 – 18 million (US$ 622 – 861) and you will have a license authorized by the Ho Chi Minh Transportation Department without having to sweat over any exams or driving lessons.

In 2010, police discovered more than 4,300 drivers using these fake licenses, mostly in the above provinces.

Analysis of 2,800 licenses showed half of them were counterfeited, 504 were real licenses but the driver’s names or some other details had been changed, and 447 used fake signatures and seals.

What is worse, many of these people had no idea that they had spent a huge sum on a fake license.

Duong Tu Luc, a licensing official in Ho Chi Minh city, said most of the recent licenses sent to his department for inspection by doubtful drivers turned out to be just fake papers.

Real money, fake license

Through a driver who is currently using a fake B2-type license for driving light trucks, Tuoitre met a man named Hai, who was known in Tra Vinh city for his illicit license business.

“Don’t worry, we can give you 100% real ones, no fake here,” he assured us. “We only do this for those we know well, no stranger accepted.”

The price is set at VND 16 million (US$ 767) per license, with half of it paid in advance and the rest paid after we receive our papers.

All we need to give him is a notarized copy of our ID cards, and eight ID photos.

“Your name will show up in the exam list of a driving school in Ho Chi Minh. The list is authorized by the city’ transportation department so the license is all real,” he said when we voiced our reservation.

“Tell you what, if I made fake papers, all the drivers here in this city would be sent to prison.”

“Pay some money and you don’t have to bother taking any lessons. What is better than that?” he made one last attempt to clinch a deal with us.

Tien was another dealer that Tuoitre met in Tra Vinh city who specialized in providing C-type license for heavy truck drivers.

A C license would cost VND 18 million (US$ 863), Tien said, claiming he only provided real papers because the fake ones only fetched VND 13 million (US$ 622).

“We don’t like to play with fire here, those kinds of fake license are really risky,” he told us.

It would take us four to eight months to have our licenses, he said, and we have to pay him a deposit of VND 8 million first.

“I have to give most of this money to my partners in Ho Chi Minh. I only make VND 500,000 – 1 million (US$ 24- 48) out of each license,” Tien said.

A truck driver from Vung Liem district, Vinh Long province, gave us his driving license and other related documents that a dealer named Long sold him in Ho Chi Minh at VND 13 million, claiming they were all real.

However, his driving license was authorized on February 21; the same day another paper showed he took his driver license knowledge and road tests.

Luc, the official at HCM’s transportation department examined the signature on his license and confirmed it was not of the department’s deputy head Duong Hong Thanh.

Other details and writing format did not match those of a valid license either, he said.

Source: Tuoi Tre