ICDL to sue those selling its certificates illegally

ICDL Arabia, which certifies competence of an individual for having the essential ICT skills for the purpose of academic graduation, employment of job advancement, in Egypt, GCC and Iraq, on Tuesday said it would take tough and immediate legal actions against all those who illegally produce, sell and grant fake ICDL certificates.

A statement issued by ICDL Arabia said that it will also pursue the holders of these fake certificates as well and 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 1,000 Egyptian pounds to 1,700 Egyptian pounds 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 or by contacting our certificate verification department.”

He said: “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 programme. We will absolutely not tolerate those involved in illegally violating our intellectual property and exploiting our reputation for personal financial gain.’’

ICDL test programmes provide competence measure of an individual having the essential ICT skills for the purpose of academic graduation, employment or job advancement.

ICDL Arabia said 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.

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