Sources said the frauds charge Tk 2,000 to Tk 4,000 for making a fake SSC/HSC certificate and Tk 5, 000 or more for an O/A Level certificate (before 2001).

The recent seizure of a huge number of such certificates in the city by the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and police and the rampant practice of forgery has troubled the parents.

Students who are not academically sound are buying these fake Ordinary (O), Advanced (A) Level certificates, Secondary School Certificate (SSC), Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC), bachelors and masters certificates of the public universities.

Anwar Islam, a university student, said: "Previously such certificates were available only in Nilkhet area but now these are produced in other places. Anyone who has the knowledge of graphics and expertise in handling computers and required software can make these."

Producing these certificates has become very easy with the availability of high quality scanners, printers and papers, and computers with high-end software like Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw and more, said students from Nilkhet area.

Rab sources said they recently arrested two people along with 60,000 fake certificates and mark sheets of different universities and education boards in the city.

A team of Rab-10 raided a house at Rasulpur in Dania and seized the certificates and mark sheets. They arrested Sheikh Abdur Rab and Sheikh Arikul Islam for possessing these.

A student said the certificates of O/A Levels from years before 2001 are being counterfeited as the certificates coming after that year have special hologram and a mark. It is not possible to counterfeit these certificates with special security features.

Another student said he managed to go abroad for higher studies in 2001 producing a laminated fake certificate. In the wake of the rampant certificate forgery, most of the foreign educational institutions stopped accepting laminated certificates after 2002-03, he said.

Sources said the frauds, mostly working in computer shops, are making the certificates secretly to avoid arrest. "We make fake certificate when any student ask for it. But we no longer make the fake documents in our workplaces as it is risky. Computers, printers and scanners are carried to a safe place or the student's residence to work in privacy," one of the frauds said.

He said they fetch more money from producing O/A Level certificates as the students of English medium schools are from richer families compared to SSC and HSC students.

Describing the mechanism of producing such certificates, he said: "At first, the colour of the certificate paper is identified and a piece of paper having the same size and shape of the original certificate is printed with that color to make a dummy paper. Then designs from the original certificate are scanned and superimposed on the dummy paper after color matching."

Sources from Dhaka University said that the controller of examinations of DU received about 200 letters in regard to fake certificates from 16 universities in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand and Australia through their diplomatic missions in Dhaka in 2003.

A number of embassy and high commission officials requesting anonymity said they have stopped accepting laminated certificates as these certificates have more possibility of being fake. To qualify for a visa, students now have to submit documents without lamination.

Senior residents said the local education boards and universities should be totally computerised and they should preserve digital data of records and transcripts of the students to stop such forgery of educational certificates. The certificates should be made with special security features so that the frauds cannot counterfeit them, they suggested.