Residents in Nibong Tebal, Penang, who lodged a police report on their addresses being digitally changed on their MyKads, without their consent, were told to go to any National Registration Department (NRD) office to lodge their complaints.

NRD public relations officer Marsheila Selamat, who is based in Putrajaya, said the complainants can lodge a report at any NRD branch.

"The owners of the MyKads must be present when lodging the reports," Marsheila told Malaysiakini when met at the Penang NRD office in Jalan Anson today.

"We will have the history of changes made and who made the changes. No one can edit the information on the MyKad without the owner's permission," she added.

"We will have the date of the changes made, so please ask the complainants to lodge their reports at any of the NRD branches near their homes."

Marsheila was responding to an incident in Nibong Tebal, Seberang Perai South, where about 100 people found that their MyKads were digitally altered, without their permission.

Twenty-nine of the affected individuals lodged police reports as their MyKads were taken by an individual who promised them financial aid from the government.

When they later checked their cards with a MyKad reader, they found that their addresses had been changed to an unknown address in Prai.

'Part of a cheating scam'

Seberang Perai Municipal Council members Satees Muniandy, David Marshel and PKR election coordinator Ong Eu Leong made the discovery when they visited several residential areas on mainland Penang last week.

They claimed that the case was allegedly part of a cheating scam by a syndicate to change the polling stations of voters before the coming general election.

Seberang Perai South police chief Supt Shafee Abd Samad said the police were waiting for a response from the NRD before taking further action.

At a press conference earlier, NRD director-general Mohd Yazid Ramli was in the dark about the alleged scam, merely saying "we will look into it".

Asked if the NRD had received similar complaints of changes made to MyKads, Mohd Yazid replied in the negative.

Penang JPN director Nur Zulfar Ibrahim, who also attended the event to hand over new MyKads to citizens, declined to comment.