Underage Students Go Online In Search Of Better Fake IDs
Nightlife in the college town of Davis, but it could be any town USA.
Here, on any given night, UC Davis students find fun, excitement, and a way into hot spots that are supposed to be off-limits to minors.
"Honestly I know a couple people I've seen them at the bars and I look at them and I'm just like 'you are not 21,'" says Leah Collins, a student at UC Davis.
"I actually do know someone who did that," Claire Cozad told CBS13. "I'm pretty sure he got an Arizona one like that."
"Fake IDs are obviously a problem in this town," admits Lt. Paul Doroshov of the Davis Police Department.
Not all that long ago getting a fake ID meant knowing someone with the talent and the tools to create one.
But these days they're oh-so-easy to get.
"The fake ID that's nothing new. Perhaps the fact that it's being manufactured overseas now, that's the big change," says Lt. Doroshov.
The fake ID has become an international criminal enterprise.
We wanted to see just how easy they are to get.
All it takes is an Internet search; countless online stores pop up selling novelty fake driver's licenses.
Most sites promise the most realistic ID cards around, touting holograms, high-definition printing, and magnetic strip encoding.
Some offer a beginner's guide to fake IDs.
We had Chris, an under-21 CBS13 intern, fill out the online form. And that's it, done.
"I think anybody can do it, a teenager could do it," says Chris.
We paid $220; it came in the mail two weeks later.
"That looks pretty realistic," Chris says of the ID the first time he saw it. "It looks identical to my real one."
As did the IDs for the investigation our sister station in San Francisco conducted, the box was shipped directly from China, says postal inspector Jeff Fitch.
"They're declaring it as jewelry and we've got a fork and a spoon here and the documents are probably underneath so they obviously know what they are doing is wrong," says Fitch.
John Boyle's job is to spot the fakes before they get into his Bay Area bar.
"Sometimes the fake IDs are better than the real ones," says Boyle.
We took ours to De Vere's, a popular pub in Davis.
"It's something that we are aware of every second that we are open," says Juliet House, De Vere's assistant manager.
She says there seems to be an endless supply of counterfiet IDs.
"Apparently they can be made all over the world from what we're hearing and the biggest thing right now is that when one site gets shut down, they move it to another one," says House.
Her bouncers go through hours of training with Ryan Morris.
House calls him her Obi-Wan Kenobi of IDs; we showed him ours.
"How good is this fake ID?" asked reporter Laura Cole.
Morris replied "Well, first off its very shiny, it's very slick and California state IDs have a little bit of texture to them."
"You within just a matter of seconds felt it and knew it wasn't real?" Cole asked.
"Yeah, yeah, basically it brought a smile to my face."
In a college town like Davis students under the age of 21 are always trying to find a way into a bar. At De Vere's, on average, they confiscate a handful of fake IDs every week, just as they do at Ketmoree.
"A lot of fake IDs are like the ones you showed me, pretty bad," Morris said.
Our ID didn't live up to the site's promise; it wasn't realistic enough, but many are.
It's critical for anyone, any business, that sells liquor to catch the counterfeits.
"'Cause you can lose your liquor license" says House.
And that's not good for an area's economy either.
"We want to be a part of this community and we want people to know that we're here and we're happy to be here and we'd like to stay open," House says "and a part of that is making sure that we stop that at the door."
And at the border.
UC Berkeley police recently confiscated a shipment of high-quality fakes from China.
Lt. Carc Decoulode says "we were contact by Department of Homeland Security."
The feds intercepted the package containing 24 bogus driver's licenses; they were headed for a Berkeley campus fraternity house and were bought from a website.
But Homeland Security isn't worried about drunken frat boys and coeds.
"ID theft, ID fraud. Sky's the limit," says Fitch.
The fake ID — a criminal venture that's been around for generations, only now they're easier to get and the quality's better and that makes them dangerous.
House knows there's only so much they can do: "I'm sure there are plenty of good fakes out there," she says. "As long as there is a will, there's a way."
