The individual in the article who worked for Avion Express in Lithuania and who embarked on what can only be described as a highly dangerous way of working within several other airlines - yes I realise that he is a qualified F/O but that does not make him qualified to call himself Captain without him taking the required steps to reach that goal officially - and his behaviour, from what has been said in the thread, seems to be the tip of a very unpleasant iceberg
I always thought....obviously incorrectly...that all flightcrew were checked thoroughly and on a regular basis to ensure that they were who they said they were and had the right paperwork etc, but I guess it is all too easy to go buy a uniform with the right number of bars on the epaulettes, sort out DIY documentation and walk into a job flying people (or freight) all over the place and get away with it.
Looking at it from the properly qualified flightcrew side, I can only imagine the anger that they may have when finding out that the man or woman they sat beside in the cockpit was a total fraud and seemingly managed to get away with that fraud for a long time before, by chance, being caught. Legitimate flightcrew go through so much training, often at immense cost and they, literally, earn their stripes only to find someone who bypassed the earning part has been working and socialising amongst them. It has to be infuriating.
Maybe pax should ask to see the flightcrew's credentials in future then.....since it appears to be so commonplace that the people pax are meant to trust might not be quite what they should be 