Can You Spot A Fake ID?
Posted May 10, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
They’ve been around since even your great-grandparents can remember. And if you were like many kids in your younger teenage years, you may have either had one, tried to get one or borrowed one. But unlike those thrilling days of yesteryear, fake I.D.s are no longer a cut and paste job that really don’t look very realistic. With modern technology, you can make anything from a birth certificate to a driver’s license that not only shows you’re older than you say you are, but can fool all but the most savvy inspector.
The phonies have been used by kids to buy booze, purchase cigarettes or get into clubs they’re supposed to be too young to enter. And if you think your teens haven’t tried the same tricks you used, think again. How effective are the counterfeit cards and the deceptive documents? Too good. CityNews sent a 25-year-old decoy into the place where a viewer claims her son bought a fake I.D. A hidden mic picked up the transaction.
Man: We give you form. You fill it out. We make it for you.
Jenny: Have you had any problems before? … So this will get me into a club?
Woman: It should. I’ve never heard any complaints.
Jenny: Do they sometimes ask you for another piece of ID?
Woman: Yeah, that’s why we make university cards, too.
Half an hour later, Jenny Yuen walked out with a phony card declaring she was from B.C. – and 19 years old. The cost: just $50. The people behind the scheme have an out that covers them – they asked her to sign a piece of paper promising she’d use her bogus card only for “novelty” purposes. “It’s mind boggling, actually,” our undercover agent relates.
Even though Jenny is 25, she looks a lot younger. And when she went into a bar to buy alcohol and a variety store to purchase cigarettes, both clerks asked for her identification. She showed them the phony one and each gave her what she’d asked for.
We went back the next day to confront the entrepreneurs who sold our plant the goods. “We don’t do it and I have nothing to do with it,” the man insisted. “I don’t know where you get it.” He claims the store in question had been empty for days because the previous tenant was guilty of the offence – and that he’s simply a cleaner.
Jenny’s response? “That place was not cleaning offices yesterday,” she assures. “He was selling IDs for sure.”
Police tell CityNews they plan to investigate the duo and charges will be laid if there’s enough evidence against them. But it’s a drop in the bucket. A search on the Internet for ‘fake IDs’ turns up more than 2,150,000 possible entries – most of which are offering to manufacture one for “novelty purposes only”.
Here are a few resources that can help you spot the fakes from the real thing.
