Wednesday, March 27, 2002

With the Latest Technology, Students Find That Creating Fake ID's Is Easy By DAN CARNEVALE While some college students are out drinking and hitting the clubs, others are hard at work mastering computerized graphic design -- so they can make fake ID's for drinking and hitting the clubs. Although college students have been using fake ID's to purchase alcohol for decades, police officials lately have found that students are using computers to create authentic-looking driver's licenses and other forms of identification. Just since February, police officers have caught students on at least three campuses making fake ID's on their residence-hall computers. At Iowa State University, a student was selling fake Illinois driver's licenses until other students tipped off authorities, police officials say. At the University of Texas at Austin, two students were arrested for allegedly selling fake ID's all over the country. And two students at Indiana University were arrested and charged with making and selling hundreds of fake driver's licenses. Lt. Jerry L. Minger, technical-services coordinator for Indiana University's police department, says students are using desktop computers and everyday software to make ID's that are almost identical to the real things. "For all practical purposes, the ID's that they are making look very authentic," Lieutenant Minger says. "The equipment that we confiscated isn't that much different than the computers you commonly see in dorm rooms." In the past, students made fake ID's by splitting open the lamination on their driver's licenses and changing the date of birth. Now students can use Photoshop and other software that comes standard with a new computer. The only other piece of equipment that a student needs is a high-quality desktop laminating machine, which is available online for less than $200. Capt. Gene Deisinger, special-operations officer for the Iowa State University police department, says no official statistics are available, but he has heard that the number of students forging driver's licenses has been increasing now that sophisticated graphics software is available. "Certainly the technology makes it frighteningly easy," Captain Deisinger says. States have been adding special features -- such as holograms and magnetic strips -- to make it difficult for anyone to forge official ID's. But computer software and printers available to most students make it easy to craft fake ID's that bartenders have trouble spotting as homemade. Holograms can be ordered over the Internet and delivered by mail. And although many fake ID's don't have legitimate magnetic strips, some bartenders never find that out: Equipment used to read magnetic strips costs thousands of dollars, a price many bar owners can't afford. Police officials, however, say they are able to tell the difference between real and phony driver's licenses by checking for special characteristics that officers aren't willing to describe publicly. Although police officers understand that many students won't wait until they turn 21 before drinking alcohol, Captain Deisinger says, authorities see the distribution of false identification as a serious problem. Drinking alcohol, especially by youngsters, usually contributes to other crimes, like theft and criminal mischief, he says. Also, with the continuing threat of terrorism, police officials say the same technology that lets someone make a fake ID for bar hopping can also be used to make ID's that could endanger people's lives. "We look at ID's much more closely now," Captain Deisinger says. When the arrests on the University of Texas campus occurred, the police believed at first that some of the fake ID's had been sold to people over the age of 21, fueling concerns that those people might try to commit fraud or terrorism. But police officials later said they had no evidence that anyone over 21 had received a fake ID. James W. Vick, vice president for student affairs at the university, says underage drinking has always been a concern of campus officials, but the issue of fake ID's is not really on the university's radar screen. Police officials are better equipped to handle that, he says. "There's a higher level of concern about it now, not so much by university authorities as much as civil authorities," Mr. Vick says. "There's a greater concern that people will try to do more than get a beer before they're 21." Some states have been cracking down on producers and users of fake ID's by enacting tougher laws. But the penalties for selling phony driver's licenses still vary widely from state to state. Imran Ali Karim, an economics sophomore who was arrested on the University of Texas campus, has been charged with tampering with a government document, which in Texas is a second-degree felony punishable by a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Jeff Bravine, an Indiana University student who was arrested, faces a charge of manufacturing false identifications, a misdemeanor that carries a maximum jail sentence of 180 days. The Iowa State student accused of creating phony ID's has not been charged yet. The student is not being held at this time and is cooperating with police officials in identifying other students who purchased the fake ID's. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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