UK teen scammer caught selling fake Covid travel test package invoices

Overseas travelers bound for the United Kingdom need to show their invoice for the mandatory "travel test package" to be allowed entry. However, those who cannot afford the expensive kit are resorting to illegal means by buying fake documents from teen scammer Malik Younas Fazal.

The 17-year-old Birmingham native was caught selling fake invoices for £80 (around $110) by a reporter who posed as a customer. During their transaction, the teenager explained that his documents are rip-offs from accredited testing firm CTM, which charges £210 (around $290) for the mandatory travel test package. The kit involves the quarantine day two test for COVID "variant surveillance" and the day eight test for travelers who can self-isolate at home.

Fazal has reportedly sold one invoice to a client from Germany who successfully entered the U.K. by showing a copy of the fake document on his phone to airport border patrol staff.

"You just show them, that's it. Visual confirmation, nothing else," he explained adding, "If you do the actual CTM they're going to track your phone, they'll track if you've done the tests or not. But without this, they can't do anything."

Those who enter the U.K. are also required to fill in a passenger locator form and their booking reference number for the test package. On his end, Fazal said he simply adds various details from the client to a template he copied from a real CTM invoice, which had been used prior by a relative. He then tells his client to prepare a hard copy of the form showing the number from the fake invoice as it would be enough to pass border patrol.

The college student revealed that he works under a franchise scheme with a fellow scammer and that he only gets 80 percent of the profit. But he denied knowing the client from Germany when contacted by Daily Mail.

Fazal did not deny selling the fake invoices for the travel test package though. He admitted that he regrets doing it and that his parents, who were unaware of his illegal dealings, are said to be ashamed of what he had done. He expressed relief too that he was caught earlier as he has "sold only a handful of fake (RT-PCR) test results." The teenager said he was only "working as a middleman for someone who had contacted him on social media" but he does not know who this person is.