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Fake IDs in the age of the internet

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Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#101

Post by Fripplebubby »

Fripplebubby wrote: post #96
arprocter wrote: post #72

Interesting that they mention Boston - along with NC it's the only place where my green card has been refused as an acceptable form of ID. I have no idea why a federally issued photo ID with my name, DoB and photo on it apparently isn't enough to prove my age. As a Brit, it amuses me that there are apparently so many balding 20 year olds with grey beards in the US that I am suspicious. They also don't seem to like my…

Boston is the real deal when it comes to ID crackdowns. About 150k college students so some tens of thousands of fake IDs, plus a history of blue laws. I believe that legally they are even allowed to refuse legitimate out-of-state US drivers' licenses (most places do not do this, but they can). Foreign passports also can be refused. And that's not even counting the notorious "box scanners" which, to my knowledge, are…

Meanwhile in the UK I have had many places accept my expired US license from a rural state most have not even heard of. Once at a supermarket, a cashier asked me for ID and I absent mindedly said "No thanks". He was satisfied with that answer, and I didn't realize what I had said until I had already left with my drinks in hand.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#102

Post by xkcd-sucks »

SamBam wrote: post #28
Arcten wrote: post #2

I've been interested in this topic for a while. The article was fairly good but I did have a few minor quibbles. For one, ordering from IDGod (the vendor in the story) is known to be very reliable. If packages get stopped at customs, a customer can contact support to get a replacement shipped at no charge. Additionally, the advanced scanner BarZapp is pretty much a non-issue. Almost any ID purchased from vendors on t…

How will a fake id pass BarZapp? According to the article (I know nothing about this, so could be wrong) it looks up the id in a database and returns the name and dob of the owner. How could the made-up name be in the database? Or are they cloning existing IDs, and the buyer doesn't get a choice in the name?

If BarZapp did do database lookups, it seems like a route to cloning part of a DMV registry...

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#103

Post by [deleted] »

StavrosK wrote: post #87
EGreg wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless they can drink and drive. Self driving cars should probably fix this someday. All other cars should have mandatory ignition interlocks for breathalyzing. Someone should invent an bluetooth-connected breathalyzer which at least annoyingly beeps when you drive until you pass. It worked for seatbelts! Kids used to not wear then until the beeping made it more annoying to not do it. Annoyance is a big motivator.

You got downvoted, but I agree with your comment. I disagree with the reasoning of "if you let kids drink, they'll definitely drive afterwards!", but I agree with stronger drunk driving enforcement.

[deleted]

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#104

Post by VLM »

delecti wrote: post #92
_jal wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the car-orientation of the US would greatly benefit from a European-style approach to teaching kids about alcohol. I lived in Germany for a year as an exchange student when I was 16, the age at which kids can drink without a parent present. They can't get a license until 18. The vast bulk of kids there, in my experience, seemed to figure out sane drinking well before they got behind the wheel. Coming back to…

> the US simply seems culturally incapable of healthy approaches to easing kids through becoming adults on a number of dimensions I couldn't agree more, and numerous problems are pretty much a direct result.

What we see as problems, the folks in charge see as profits.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#105

Post by dsfyu404ed »

delecti wrote: post #91
mhb wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this a zoning problem rather than a size problem? Does zoning generally allow having a neighborhood bar?

That's not really a relevant question. The problem is that the "neighborhoods" are too large for there to be a location that's walkable for enough people.

In college students will a mile or several to/from parties or over the course of a night party hopping. Not walking everywhere is more of a social norms issue. In college towns you see many more non-students walking everywhere. People expect people to walk everywhere in college towns and consequently you don't get bothered by the cops for walking around after a reasonable hour unless you're doing something stupid.

In small cities and towns where walking everywhere isn't the social norm nobody does it because walking home from the bar at 2am is likely to get you bothered by the cops because it's not typical.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#106

Post by snovv_crash »

soundwave106 wrote: post #61
douche wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're a stereotypically ethnic Polish person (just guessing from the username) no one is going to even look cross-eyed at you if you can speak English at all. The 21 year drinking age is still idiotic and actively harmful.

The only advise I would give on this angle is more that one should carry their passports (or some other form of ID) with them if they want to enter US bars / drinking establishments or even just want to order a beer. The United States (from my perception) seems to have far more establishments serving alcohol, whose policy is to ask identification for everyone (or if not everyone, a ridiculously over-heavy subsection…

That's because in most of Europe you can buy beer from 16. Even in mid 20s most people are obviously not 16 any more.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#107

Post by eropple »

StavrosK wrote: post #89
ue_ wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pardon my ignorance, but why drink if not to get 'drunk'? Alcohol doesn't taste very nice, so the only advantage I get out of it is that I feel more of a 'buzz'. Is it common just to drink as if it were something that tastes nice, like juice?

I think it's too bad that you got downvoted for asking a reasonable question. I don't like the taste of alcohol at all either, and I never drink because of that, but yes, I do think that most people acquire the taste. My girlfriend, for example, both likes the taste of wine and the "happiness" she gets after two glasses.

For me it wasn't "acquiring a taste"--it was finding the taste that I like. I tried a lot of stuff and thought most of it was crap. Beer tastes foul to me (all of it, from Coors to IPAs and everything in between), as do most liquors (gin, vodka) and while Scotches are drinkable I find a lot of them are the IPAs of liquor ("duuuude, it's so smoky"/"duuuuude, it's so hoppy")--but I happened to find that I really like Irish whiskeys. I'll drink Jameson or Bushmill's neat or a little ginger ale and it's great. Been drinking them for most of a decade now. Still don't like the others I mentioned.

There may totally be nothing that fits your flavor profile, but I wouldn't write it off totally as an acquired taste. Might just not have found what clicks for you.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#108

Post by eropple »

StavrosK wrote: post #88
agalarza wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone shares your opinion on alcohol not tasting very nice.

Not everyone has to. He was expressing his own opinion, and asking a question. You don't have to be rude.

The way he phrased it was a definitive statement, which is aggressive and will prime people to respond the way people responded. (Your other post, which I replied to, was way more reasonable than his was.)

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#109

Post by dsfyu404ed »

delecti wrote: post #92
_jal wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the car-orientation of the US would greatly benefit from a European-style approach to teaching kids about alcohol. I lived in Germany for a year as an exchange student when I was 16, the age at which kids can drink without a parent present. They can't get a license until 18. The vast bulk of kids there, in my experience, seemed to figure out sane drinking well before they got behind the wheel. Coming back to…

> the US simply seems culturally incapable of healthy approaches to easing kids through becoming adults on a number of dimensions I couldn't agree more, and numerous problems are pretty much a direct result.

You could say the same thing about Europe, the resulting problems are just different. The grass is always greener...

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#110

Post by rsync »

SamBam wrote: post #34

> in my case, hidden inside a box of red chopsticks. Though I reflexively tossed the utensils out with a glut of election mailers and Bed Bath & Beyond coupons, I soon realized they just might contain what I’d been waiting over two months for. This is the weirdest part of the story for me. Does anyone else get boxes of chopsticks in their mail so regularly that they instinctively treat it as junk mail?

"This is the weirdest part of the story for me. Does anyone else get boxes of chopsticks in their mail so regularly that they instinctively treat it as junk mail?"

Actually, every two months or so we will receive an amazon package with some item that we never ordered and is not in our purchase queue, etc. Something we never even looked at.

I used to think this was just a mistaken fulfillment, etc., but now I think it's intentional. I think vendors are mining purchase history to determine likely new customers for item X and then sending a "mistaken" shipment to introduce the product.

I have no evidence to back up that conclusion.

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