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| Fake IDs for Underage Drinkers are Really Good Fakes |
| 2011-07-31 |
| The days when faking driver's licenses was a cottage industry -- often practiced in college dorm rooms by a computer geek with a laminating machine -- have given way to far more sophisticated and prolific practitioners who operate outside the reach of U.S. law enforcement. In an era when terrorism and illegal immigration have transformed driver's licenses into sophisticated mini-documents festooned with holograms and bar codes, beating the system has never been easier. Just wire money to "the Chinese guy." "He's like some sort of genius in China," said a 19-year-old for whom Eney bought shots that night. "Every kid in Annapolis has one of his licenses." The "Chinese guy" -- whose e-mail address is passed around on college campuses and among high school kids -- is actually a Chinese company that mails untold thousands of fake driver's licenses to the United States. They have been turning up in states from coast to coast. To the naked eye -- even the practiced eye of most bartenders and police officers -- the counterfeits look perfect. The photo and physical description are real. So is the signature. The address may be, too. The holograms are exact copies, and even the bar code can pass unsophisticated scans. A really smart kid, or some government support? "We're seeing these false IDs being generated from the same source out of China," said Steven Williams, chief executive of Intellicheck, which supplies detection equipment to federal agencies, law enforcement and businesses. "There's a rampant distribution of false IDs . . . from China, from one source." The IDs have shown up in various states, each license carrying a mysterious hidden tip-off in the bar code that points directly to the same Chinese company. More than just the rage among underage drinkers, the top-flight bogus licenses are a hot item among practitioners of credit-card fraud. And soon-to-be jihadists. The shoe box that arrived in the mail from China contained a cheap pair of shoes. "We thought the Chinese guy had ripped us off," said the 19-year-old. Until then, the transaction had gone smoothly. She made first contact through an e-mail address supplied by the acquaintance. A prompt e-mail reply laid out the deal. "It was $300 if you just wanted one" license, she said. "It was $200 [each] for two and $75 [each] if you wanted more than 20." Photos, names, signatures and physical descriptions were e-mailed to the address. Money was collected from friends, many of them former classmates at the Severn School, from which Eney also had graduated, and wired to an address in China specified in the e-mail. "You can pick from a list of about 10 states," she said. "I heard that the Pennsylvania license was the best one." The shoe box with postmarks from China arrived in a matter of days. After initial consternation, she flipped over one of the shoes and ripped open the sole. Out tumbled 22 brand-new, visually perfect driver's licenses. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #7 Look for all those people to have really serious stolen identity problems in a few years...except they gave all the information to the thieves. Idiots. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2011-07-31 23:32 |
#6 A really smart kid, or some government support? Someone free-lancing off the government-built library of templates and materials. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2011-07-31 20:28 |
| #5 Is it faster than the DMV? Hell, is it better quality than the DMV? Let the market decide. |
| Posted by: S 2011-07-31 14:19 |
| #4 The man in Pakistan is using a goat on a treadmill to power his PC. |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2011-07-31 13:08 |
| #3 Somewhere in Pakistan a man weeps... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2011-07-31 11:22 |
| #2 Everytime there is fraud coming out of China, we should deduct the cost from our debt to them. |
| Posted by: Penguin 2011-07-31 11:00 |
| #1 Drat! I see while I started this post at 7:30, I didn't finish it until after Anguper Hupomosing9418 posted the link at 9:24. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2011-07-31 10:51 |