The Bureau of Immigration reported on Saturday that a total of 241 fake and counterfeit documents have been detected in 2023.

According to the BI Anti-Fraud Section, birth and marriage certificates, passports, visas, and other documents were found faked for international travel as the forensic document laboratory examined these papers.

As such, BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco reminded the public not to tamper with their fake documents, as those will be detected by the equipment.

He added that after the papers are checked by their skilled immigration officers, the documents will also be checked by modern equipment.

Meanwhile, the Australian government, through the Department of Home Affairs of the Australian Embassy, provided three new pieces of forensic document examination equipment that will be used to check fraudulent documents.