KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 — The widely circulated photo of a car using the plate number FF2, which was sold for over RM600,000, was doctored.

"After an investigation, the department finds that there is a modification made to the registration number from KFF 2 to FF 2,” Road Transport Department director-general Datuk Zailani Hashim told Harian Metro, a Malay tabloid.

Special plate numbers have long been viewed as a status symbol and the government has used it as a way to raise revenue usually through a bidding process.

Depending on the code and numbers, the prices of these special vehicle identification plates, usually in the single or double digits, can reach anywhere between half a million to just under a million ringgit.

On May 22, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the vehicle registration number bidding for the "FF” series netted a record-high collection of RM34.29 million. The FF 8 plate topped the biddings at RM950,000.

The next most expensive plates were FF 9 (RM911,999), FF 3 (RM639,000) and FF 2 (RM638,000).

Over 34,000 people had participated in the bidding process from May 14 to 19, and 8,348 of the bidders were successful, Loke said.