BigPistonsForever said
As was pointed out in many earlier posts there are 2 kinds of fraudulent licenses. They are either fake as is not actually issued by the regulator, or genuine but issued on the basis of a fraudulent application ( eg having someone else write exams for you, or bribing an examiner to pass you).
I'm a long time lurker, but felt I could contribute to this thread. I spent my childhood in South East Asia, and then during my career I have worked for 2 years in Japan and 6 months in Indonesia, as well as making many short trips to Thailand, Malaysia, China and others. It seems like the majority of PPRune posters are "Westerners", and so would have little idea of the culture in South East Asia. Until I actually lived there I had no idea of the scale of corruption in some countries - I was stunned!
First experience was befriending someone from the British Foreign Office in Tokyo - he had previously worked in India, and was the target of several internal inquiries because of his refusal to accept some "official documents", e.g. a visa applicant with a Birth Certificate saying they were 25 when they obviously were in their mid-thirties or even older. He got so fed up that he bought an official death certificate - for himself. This was no PhotoShop forgery - this was issued by an Indian Government office . If a court in England had made enquiries of the Indian Government they would have concluded he was dead.
But the scale of corruption in Indonesia was just stunning. I was working for a sub-contractor on a World Bank project. Now I saw the obvious police corruption - stopping the little mini-vans that provide public transport and "collecting money". If they didn't pay up the police would find a problem with their van - and there were lots of problems - bald tyres, rust, etc. So cheaper just to pay up. But one of the long-term ex-pats told me how the system worked in the Government Department the project was for. A permanent government job in Indonesia is "gold", so to show their appreciation the lowest rung employees pay around 10% of their salaries to their boss. He in his turn has to show his appreciation to his boss, and so it goes up the pyramid.. So it's simply a way of life there.
So, based on my experience I would expect that in a lot of South East Asian countries you would have to pay a bribe to get your pilots license - that's the way the system works. If you can actually fly - that would be a bonus!