Duo arrested for generating, using forged health codes

Another case of health code forgery has been uncovered, with two non-local residents arrested recently, the Judiciary Police (PJ) announced yesterday.

At the special press conference, the police revealed that a male surnamed Zhu, a 31-year-old security guard who worked at the Border Gate, and Wang, a 54-year-old female mainland Chinese resident who is an overstayer, had been arrested.

While both are identified as suspects, only Zhu is currently in custody.

The investigation was triggered in July last year when the Public Prosecutions Office ordered the PJ to carry it out. The allegation is that Macau health codes with valid SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid test (NAT) negative results had been forged and sold to people for border-crossing purposes.

The PJ recapped that, in July 2021, a person filed a complaint with the Macau Health Bureau (SSM) against a security guard at a local border checkpoint. It was reported that the security guard had pitched a health code and NAT negative result “forgery service” to the complainant.

According to the police, the complainant failed to obtain their NAT negative result in time to facilitate entry into mainland China. While contemplating possible solutions, the complainant was approached by a security guard, who was pitching the “service” to them. They were requested to pay 400 Chinese yuan for each health code with the NAT negative result.

The PJ managed to narrow down the scope to Zhu, a security guard working for a service provider commissioned by SSM. Upon revisiting its records, the PJ linked Zhu to at least nine counts of similar case.

On May 21, 2022, in cooperation with the Public Security Police Force (PSP), who handles border clearance in Macau, the PJ apprehended Wang at the Border Gate. She confessed to the police that, in mid-2021, she purchased a forged health code with a fake NAT negative result from a security guard at a local border checkpoint for the price of 400 Chinese yuan. She successfully used it to enter Zhuhai.

Two days later, the PSP intercepted Zhu while he was entering Macau at the Border Gate. He said that he took advantage of the convenience of his security work to look for “clients” to sell his “service.”

To provide his “product,” he generated his own health code, altered the information shown on it and sent the codes to his “clients.”

He was alleged to have conducted the crime for about a month between May and June last year. He claimed to have earned 2,000 Chinese yuan from nine “clients.”