ICDL to pursue legal actions against forgers of its certificates in Egypt

Charges against fake ICDL certificate holders to be dropped if accused

completes ICDL requirements by year end

UAE, 26 August, 2014 - ICDL Arabia, the governing body and certification authority for the ICDL certificate program in Egypt, GCC States and Iraq, has issued a statement confirming that it will take tough and immediate legal actions against all those who illegally produce, sell and grant fake ICDL certificates. The statement also confirmed that ICDL Arabia will also pursue the holders of these fake certificates as well. ICDL Arabia vowed to pursue these cases legally and work closely with the concerned Egyptian authorities to put an end to the proliferation of fraudulent certificates.

The public statement was issued based on ICDL Arabia’s commitment to address the problem of the growing number of fake certificates in Egypt, where individuals are said to be paying EGP1,000 to EGP1,700 for a fake version of the certificate without even taking the required official test. As part of its efforts to tackle this issue, ICDL Arabia offered an amnesty for those that surrender their ICDL fake certificate, sit in for the official ICDL test at any of the ICDL accredited test centers, and complete the certification requirements by the end of 2014.

Jamil Ezzo, Director General of ICDL Arabia, said, “The widespread use of fake certificates is not restricted only to Egypt or to the ICDL Program; and ICDL is not the only stakeholder that will benefit from putting an end to this problem. The continued widespread use of fake certificates de-values the investments made by the Egyptian Government in its people as well as undermines those who diligently achieved their ICDL qualifications. Hence, we call on all employers within the public and private sectors to be vigilant by establishing a strict policy requiring the verification of ICDL certificates through our certificate verification website www.icdlarabia.org/verify or by contacting our certificate verification department at 0227547340”.

He added, “I would like to warn that fraud cases have no legal time limit and we intend to pursue every case in order to protect the integrity of our certification program. We will absolutely not tolerate those involved in illegally violating our intellectual property and exploiting our reputation for personal financial gain.’’

“ICDL is considered one of the most highly regarded certification by governments as well as educational and qualification regulators around the world due to its integrity and reputation for providing accurate competence measure of an individual having the essential ICT skills for the purpose of academic graduation, employment or job advancement,” Ezzo continued.

In addition to enforcing new rigorous requirements on its accredited test centers and stepping up quality control measures to curb the fake certificate problem, ICDL Arabia announced that it will be introducing a newly designed certificate bearing state-of-the-art security features embedded into the document, which cannot be duplicated in fake versions. Among these security features is the inclusion of a QR Code that is unique for every certificate holder. Once scanned using any free QR Code reader app available for all smart devices the user will automatically be directed to a website page where the relevant candidate details and the ICDL qualifications of the certificate holder will be displayed,” Ezzo concluded.