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Fake IDs in the age of the internet

melmagazine.com

31–40 of 201 posts

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#31

I'm a bit disappointed in this article. Interviewing someone who bought fake IDs and a small scale seller from 1994 isn't that insightful. He should have tracked down a current seller and interviewed them. Prices have dropped in the past 10 years which I assume means increased competition. It would be interesting to hear how that has affected the business. I'm also curious about the techniques they use. When I was se…

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Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#32
post #17

Is that seriously how the driving license looks like in the US? It looks like a student card, I understand why it's easy to duplicate now.

Compared to what? I've seen much simpler driver's licenses from other countries. Up until recently (2013 maybe) the French driver's license was literally a piece of pink paper with a picture glued to it. http://flawlessfakeids.com/wp-content/uploads/French-Fake-Dr...

But a drivers license is not a valid proof of identification here

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#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?

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#35
> The options for payment were Bitcoin and Western Union; since I’m neither a Russian hacker nor a Dark Web impresario, I opted for the latter.

This is so frustrating for me to read. Western Union has its own set of problems and its users throw money away on fees, but why is cryptocurrency being thought of as a only being used by Russian Hackers and Dark Web impresarios?

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#36

The mass use of fake IDs of this sort is a bizarrely American problem. In the UK, you're considered an adult at age 18. Most (aside from the unfortunate 17-year-olds) university students can legally purchase alcohol, smoke, or gamble if they so choose. But we don't have MADD, I guess.

Being a well-off 19yo engineer in Poland I can't even imagine being treated unequally in everyday life, so that's yet another reason to not visit US for me, other than almost certainly being questioned at a border (although 90% of my income comes from startups in California).

Don't let it stop you. Despite the anecdotes most people pass through the border with no issues at all, certainly no more than the grilling you'll get flying into parts of Europe (UK and Denmark come to mind from my personal experience - nothing too crazy just a lot of questions vs some of my US crossings where they barely look at you).

Likewise with the violence you'll see in the media. Most of America is safe and people aren't walking around waiting to shoot someone.

It would be like saying you won't visit any of the great European cities due to terrorism concerns. The perceived risk is much greater than the actual tiny risk.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#37
post #28
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?

It's neither. All BarZapp does is read the barcode and check that it contains reasonable information and it formatted according to the standards. Vendors have figured out proper formatting so they look appropriate to BarZapp. Of course, no fake id will pass actual lookup in a database. Except of course cloned IDs, which are extremely rare in my experience. I've heard of stories of someone with a stolen DMV database who would sell fakes with real information for about $700 each, but I've never seen it myself, and no reasonable vendor doing anything like that would be selling through the clearweb.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#38

> The options for payment were Bitcoin and Western Union; since I’m neither a Russian hacker nor a Dark Web impresario, I opted for the latter. This is so frustrating for me to read. Western Union has its own set of problems and its users throw money away on fees, but why is cryptocurrency being thought of as a only being used by Russian Hackers and Dark Web impresarios?

Because most people who use it are in one of those groups or doing business with someone who is. It is, of course, an unfair stereotype. It's just as popular among Chinese hackers.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Greece, we don't check IDs for alcohol use (in practice. I think we're supposed to be doing it, nowadays). There are also no on-premises laws for alcohol. I think that's mostly because the culture is different, as people don't generally drink to get drunk like in other countries. You won't see the round-after-round drinking that you see in the UK or US, people will generally buy one or two drinks, and will rarely…

>In Greece, we don't check IDs for alcohol use (in practice. I think we're supposed to be doing it, nowadays). There are also no on-premises laws for alcohol. That's not correct. The law states clearly that alcohol purchase and consumption in public are illegal for underage people [1]. It's also illegal to enter premises where alcohol is served, without being escorted by an adult. Unfortunately the problem with Greec…

I'm not convinced it's reasonable to call it a problem. Prohibitionists have done little good, particularly when it comes to lighter drugs, such as alcohol or marijuana.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#40
post #17

Is that seriously how the driving license looks like in the US? It looks like a student card, I understand why it's easy to duplicate now.

Compared to what? I've seen much simpler driver's licenses from other countries. Up until recently (2013 maybe) the French driver's license was literally a piece of pink paper with a picture glued to it. http://flawlessfakeids.com/wp-content/uploads/French-Fake-Dr...

Compared to Germany for example with a bunch of holograms and whatnot: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/DE_Licen...

In contrast to e.g. the French, our drivers licence is a valid means of identification though.

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