Fake FAA licenses are rare in my experience. However every U.S. airline seems to have tales from the training building of folks using the wrong 'gouge' for the systems test and all flunking a la
Animal House. Or, a story of the guy who stole the test from an instructor's desk and then jammed the Xerox machine in the schoolhouse trying to copy it (hey, at least I went to Zappo's to make the copies
).
Here's a pilot test cheating scandal that made headlines three decades ago.
A long while back there was a cheating scandal at the Air Force Reserve F-16 unit at Homestead AFB near MIA. One of the guys in the unit was a fed and would give out the written tests, leave a copy of the answer sheet on the desk and leave the room. Even fighter pilots could now pass the writtens for ATP, FE and dispatcher.
Somehow word leaked out and the whole scheme collapsed with grand jury indictments and military discipline proceedings.
Don't know if anyone did hard time in this one but one of my friends (callsign 'JR') unnamed in the NYT article below, had his ATP, but not his FE ticket, pulled by the FAA. Our airline let him downbid to FE where he laid low until the FAA let him retake the exams a couple of years later. I'm told some of these folks at other carriers were fired, it probably depended on how many F-16 drivers were in the chief pilot's office.
Here's a news article on this earlier case of license fraud:
U.S. Charges Cheating Plot at Air Base - New York Times
Former Tradewinds A300 pilot finally jailed for FAA fraud