Dr. Meqbl Al-Hedaithy, the Assistant Secretary General of the Saudi Medical Specializations Commission, responsible for checking medical qualifications, told Al-Youm Arabic language newspaper that most of the fake certificates they detect are coming out of Asia.
The countries famed for the forgery of the medical certificates are India, Philippines, Pakistan and Bangladesh, revealed Dr Al-Hedaithy.
Set up by royal decree in 1992, the SMSC has a strong pedigree of catching copies, which means that the forgeries are easily detected.
The people working in this section have years of experience hunting for fake credentials.
When they are suspicious of any certificate they immediately contact the Kingdom s cultural or educational attaché in the suspected country of origin for the certificate and ask them to contact the university to verify the authenticity of the degree.
All the staff at the SMSC are regularly briefed on the various international qualifications, seals and stamps that are available.
Many regularly attend Security Science courses at Naif University to learn about methods of forgery.
The SMSC also possesses some of the latest detection technology available, making it virtually impossible for forged documents to get through.
The doctor revealed that the most forgeries are by those claiming to be health assistants and health technicians, adding that in fact few forgeries of doctors degrees were attempted.
