By.Caroline Vandergriff
Minors have been using fake IDs for decades, but now technology is making it harder for bartenders and bouncers to know what’s real and what’s not.
Just last year, Tulsa police called in Homeland Security to investigate a spike in high quality fake IDs.
“You see a whole lot more that look real, rather than somebody just taking their friend’s when it’s obviously not them,” said Josh Simpson, who’s been a bartender for a decade.
Simpson works at Osteria in Oklahoma City.
He received the state training to serve alcohol, so he knows what to watch out for.
“If it’s obviously not them or the picture has been tampered with, that kind of thing,” he said. “The signature. I usually check the signature, like misspellings and stuff.”
Simpson doesn’t see a lot of fakes at the restaurant he works at.
“They use them at knock off gas stations where they have different people working,” said 16-year-old Autumn Sharp, who says several of her friends have fake IDs.
Sharp doesn’t have one, but she says they don’t seem hard to get.
“A couple of my friends have people in college they know that they just text like, ‘Hey can you get me a fake ID?’” she said “And then you have to pay a certain amount and it just comes in the mail.”
There are also plenty of sites online that promise to send you premium fakes that scan and have working holograms.
Simpson thinks the ability to detect fake IDs is now more important than ever.
“It’s probably going to be a much bigger problem as technology makes things easier,” he said.
It’s illegal in Oklahoma for people under the age of 21 to drink alcohol or to use a fake ID. Minors caught using one can be charged with a misdemeanor and face a $300 fine, up to 30 hours of community service, and the suspension of their driver’s license.
Businesses who sell alcohol to minors could lose their liquor license and face steep fines as well.
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