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"Beneath the Surface: The Art of Deception with Fake IDs"

An in-depth reporting and writing story about fake IDs

  Waiting within the bustling line for the bar, you see a group of friends huddled together with laughter lingering in the air. The glow of the interior lights flickers out through the windows, casting playful shadows on the pavement. Excitement buzzes as you await your turn, the distant thud of music leaking through the door. Just steps away from greeting the bouncer, you hear angry shouts. An argument breaks out between the bouncer and the patron. The guest is escorted out of line by three other security personnel. He was 19, attempting to use a fake ID to get into the bar. 

  Fake IDs are not uncommon among those under 21, especially in a college town, where people want to go out and have a good time with their friends. According to Document Security Alliance, around 59% of people between the ages of 15 and 20 possessed a fake ID in 2020. Jack Fortrin, 20, a bouncer at Rivers Street Ale House, said he’ll get roughly three per week. He said it’s hard to judge just how many three per week is because Boone is notorious for checking IDs, and most people know not to test it. 

  “It’s worse on game days people are coming in from all over, wanting to go to the bar with their friends after a win,” Fortrin said. “I get a bunch on weekends when we have home games or events, like concerts.”

  Fortrin said bars in Boone are really good at checking IDs and a lot of people coming in from other locations aren’t aware of this. He said a lot of the fakes he gets are from people who don’t live around the Boone area. Rachael Wylie, 21, said she invited her friend to Boone on a game day in November 2022. Coming from Charlotte, her friend wasn’t aware of the strict ID checks in Boone. Within two hours of his visit, he had his fake ID confiscated by a bartender at Rivers Street Ale House. 

  According to an article by the National Library of Medicine, advancements in technology have significantly increased the accessibility of counterfeit IDs—The prevalence of online platforms and websites providing convenient access to high-quality fake identification has increased. Some platforms allow individuals to submit their photos and personal details, resulting in swift delivery of counterfeit IDs within a matter of days.

  “Fake’s are definitely better,” Fortrin said. “Cause if you look at older ones, they lack in quality, and especially newer ones are better with all the scanning stuff because that used to be a big thing is that fake IDs wouldn't scan. But now, all the fake IDs scan, you know?”

  The majority of ID scanners authenticate an ID by scanning the information encoded in the barcode or magnetic strip, ensuring that the data is presented in the correct format. These functionalities primarily serve to facilitate the rapid extraction of information from an ID and are not designed as strong security measures. 

  “Scanning has kind of been phased out because that is hands down the easiest thing to fake,” Nick Novacek, 25, a former host at an axe bar, now a software integration expert, said. “It is an unencrypted barcode. So, there is a checksum at the end and the start. And those are mathematically calculated, and the formula is public. So, anybody can make one.” 

  Novacek said any company trying to integrate a database lookup quickly on a scan would have to integrate to all 50 states, which is expensive. 

A dependable scanner would be expensive for the business and would take time. Novacek said the government database is slow. When he scanned in information, it took more than a minute for results to come in. A line waiting to get into the bar is typically quite long. A minute to look up each patron's ID causes 10 people to take 10 minutes to get in. Fortrin said it takes about 20 seconds per person, which means it takes two minutes to get 10 people into the bar. Fortrin said if they needed to wait one minute for each guest, the line would be out to the road and people would leave. 

  The strongest security measure is human. Bouncers, police officers and alcohol distributors are all trained to be able to distinguish between a real ID and a fake one. 

  Novacek said it’s important to note that there are three types of fakes: Fake, borrowed and altered. 

  A true fake ID is one that is crafted from scratch with the use of pictures and personal information. A borrowed ID is when a minor uses an ID from another person, like an older sibling, and pretends to be that person. An altered ID is the real identification card belonging to the individual with some modified details.

According to Maine’s Center for Disease Control & Prevention, always start with the back when looking for fake IDs. Oftentimes, there is blurred imagery on barcodes, seals or prints. Fortrin said it’s almost always extremely easy to tell. 

  Novacek said all of the newer IDs have holograms within them. Southern Chard, the bar he worked at in Raleigh in 2019, used to keep little blacklights behind each of the counters. Novacek said if you shine a blacklight on the ID, you will see all of the holograms. He said those are really hard to fake.

  Novacek said that it’s rare to see fake verticals. 

  Fortrin said he’s maybe seen two vertical fakes in his year of working as a bouncer at Rivers Street Ale House. Fortin said it’s always been an older sibling giving their younger sibling their old ID.

  “At that point, you just have to look at them and be like, bro this isn’t you,” Fortrin said. “Most of the time they’ll just be like ‘you right’ and head out.”

  A person who provides fraudulent identification for another person’s use could face criminal charges according to North Carolina criminal law. The charges are the same for the person presenting the ID. Charges can vary from a class 1 misdemeanor on record, loss of license for one year, jail time, fines and probation.

  Even with websites giving information on how to discover a fake ID, fake ID distributors don’t resolve the issues. Despite the growth in technology, the only change among IDs is scanability, according to an article by the Center for Alcohol Policy. Bouncers in Boone are confident in their ability to spot a fake. So why do people still try their luck in using them? 

  College students specifically tend to have friends who are over 21 and want to go out, get drunk and do something fun. Jasmine Sedaghatzadeh, a senior at Appalachian State, turned 21 in September, said she thought about buying a fake ID in 2021. She said she was the youngest in her friend group and she was tired of always having to stay home when her friends would go out to the bar.