news article: "Fake fingerprint ring busted"

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Fake fingerprint ring busted
May 6, 2010
SEOUL - SOUTH Korean police said on Thursday they had arrested a man for selling fake fingerprints to people who wanted to enter Japan illegally.
Police said the 43-year-old man, identified only as Choi, was accused of making and selling silicone-made fingerprints copied from other South Koreans for up to 15 million won (S$18,136).
Choi and his accomplices sold the fake fingerprints and accompanying documents to 13 South Koreans who had been expelled from Japan for staying illegally, they said.
South Korea plans to start fingerprinting foreign visitors this year under a new immigration law passed last month.
'As South Korea plans to adopt the fingerprinting system for foreigners in the second half of this year, we need to quickly devise countermeasures to prevent fingerprint scams,' one police official told the Yonhap news agency.
South Korea previously took fingerprints of foreigners intending to stay for more than a year but the requirement was lifted in 2004. -- AFP
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