02/17/2025

‘Unbeatable’ Fake IDs Become Booming Underground Business

PYMNTS

While digital identity crimes are an ever-present threat, fake physical IDs have never gone away.

And as The New York Times (NYT) reported recently, these IDs — long-prized by underage folks who want to hit the bars before they’re legally allowed — are only growing more sophisticated.

That’s because continual upgrades to license designs means that the type of fake ID students once put together themselves in their dorms no longer past muster, the report said. Now, counterfeiters are putting together fake IDs that include holograms, bar codes and laser engraving that can trick bar owners’ electronic scanners.

The counterfeiters, the report added, put up websites listing replicas by state, take payments in cryptocurrency, and build fake IDs with equipment and materials they promise can fool the sharpest-eyed bouncers.

These sites, NYT said, list licenses with “scientific specificity,” including details about card thickness in micrometers, laminates, and security enhancements like embedded data chips, ultraviolet features and coded magnetic strips.

“They are unbeatable,” Martin Sheil, 62, who owns the Josie Woods Pub in Greenwich Village, told NYT.