A name, date of birth, height, hair and eye color scribbled on a piece of stamped paper was once the only necessary information on the 1899 drivers license. Since then ID’s have become complex cards making it harder for fake ID makers to duplicate.
According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, since October 2010, the cardholder’s date of birth and signatures can be felt by touch, images are placed on that can only be seen with the use of ultraviolet lights, and a laser perforation outline of the California Brown Bear can be seen when a flashlight is pressed against the back of the card. The card now also has a 2D bar code on the back of the card that replicates and verifies only the information on the front of the card.
For people under the age of 21, drivers license are flipped vertically. Highlighted in red, it states what year they turn 21, and in blue what year they turn 18.
Making fake IDs has become far more complicated now, needing to continuously keep up with the government prevention measures. A former fake ID producer explains the simplicity of what it was like making fake IDs 20 years ago.
“We purchased [blank ID cards] by mail order from an ad in the back of a Rolling Stone magazine that sold the cards for 10 for 20 dollars,” he said. “They were generic ‘identification cards’ that came with plastic laminating sleeves.”
The blank cards had ‘not legal identification’ stamped on them that indicated they were not issued by any governmental authority. When making the cards, this would then be covered up.
“We would have the purchaser take a photo of themselves in a coin-operated photo booth. I would cut one of the photos out to match the space on the card, fill in the information with a typewriter, then stick it all in the sleeve and laminated it with an iron,” he said.
The business began after he made one for himself and his friends, and realized he could make a profit by selling them.
“We would charge 25 dollars each, but 35 dollars for freshmen. It probably took 20 minutes to make the ID and cost 2 dollars each [to make],” he said. “We made enough that the Seven-Elevens all along a major boulevard were on the lookout for them.”
Fake IDs on websites currently range from 50 to 100 dollars.
The process of making and checking fake IDs has become more complicated since then. The quality of the ID has become increasingly harder to duplicate. The former ID producer was not copying any form of a driver’s license. He copied identification cards like the ones that are available through the Department of Motor Vehicles.
“I filled out a generic ID with highly inaccurate information. That worked back then more than it would now. I can’t imagine how someone would copy a drivers license even then, let alone now,” he said.