📰 From the news · Impersonating a real college/agent
A set of scrubs, a hospital lanyard and a fake identity card: the 14-year-old police say posed for a week as a medical officer at Serdang Hospital
Malaysia's public hospitals are run by the Ministry of Health (MOH), and anyone practising as a doctor there must be registered with the Malaysian Medical Council. Hospital Sultan Idris Shah Serdang (HSIS), in Selangor, is one of those MOH hospitals. Nobody in this case sold a degree and, according to the ministry, no patient was treated. A child walked into a working hospital in the right clothes, and for days nobody checked who she was.
According to CodeBlue, the health news service of the Galen Centre, Sepang police said in August 2024 that a 14-year-old girl had allegedly posed as a doctor at HSIS for a week. Police said she was found in an operating theatre, admitted pretending to be a medical officer and said she had wanted to help with a surgery. A staff member filed a police report, and the next morning, 8 August, she was arrested in the hospital lobby. Police seized a set of scrubs and a hospital lanyard. An anonymous social media account, later deleted, claimed she had entered the neonatal intensive care unit; that claim formed no part of the police account.
Malay Mail reported that a Sepang magistrate granted a two-day remand under Section 448 of the Penal Code, for trespass, and Section 170, for impersonating a public servant. CodeBlue quoted an MOH statement saying that "preliminary investigations showed that the individual used a fake identity card." A week later, the New Straits Times reported Deputy Health Minister Lukanisman Awang Sauni as saying the teenager "did not perform any medical procedures" and did not prescribe medication. CodeBlue also quoted the Malaysian Medical Association's president, who said the breach "can potentially put the health and lives of patients at risk", urged tighter staff identification, and asked HSIS to check whether patient care had been affected.
Scrubs and a lanyard are not credentials, but inside a busy hospital they work like one. According to the New Straits Times, what eventually raised suspicion was the girl's youthful appearance, not a document check, and the ministry's response was stricter enforcement of staff identification passes. A fake card survives for as long as nobody compares it with the staff list.
For students and families, the lesson travels beyond Serdang. What let a teenager pass as a medical officer is what lets an agent pass as a university representative: the white coat, the letterhead, the profile photo in a lanyard. None of those is proof. Check a doctor against the medical council's register, a college against the regulator's approved list, and a recruiter against the institution's own international office, reached through its official website. If a hospital can be fooled by a costume, a family abroad can be too. Verify the record, not the uniform.
Were you affected by this case, or something like it? Report it with your own evidence, or tell your story — first-person accounts are what stop the next family.
This is a news-sourced case summary written by the TrustMBBS team, not a first-person account; see the sources above. They reflect one person's experience and are not a verdict on any institution. Report your own: Report a scam or tell your story.