Fake IDs made in China popular with teens

WASHINGTON -- When the fleeing motorcycle hit the curb, scraped past a utility pole and hurled Craig Eney, 20, to his death, a bogus South Carolina driver's license was in the hip pocket of his jeans.

He spent the final hours of his life trading on that phony license to buy shots for his buddies at two downtown Annapolis, Md., bars, places so popular among underage drinkers that bouncers are stationed outside to check everyone's ID.

Yet scores of young people flash fake driver's licenses and waltz on by to the bar.

The days when faking driver's licenses was a cottage industry -- often practiced in college dorm rooms by a computer geek with a laminating machine -- have given way to far more sophisticated and prolific practitioners who operate outside the reach of law enforcement.

Just wire money to "the Chinese guy." "He's like some sort of genius in China," said a 19-year-old woman for whom Eney bought shots that night.

The "Chinese guy" is actually a Chinese company that mails untold thousands of fake driver's licenses to the United States. They have been turning up in states from coast to coast.

To the naked eye -- even the practiced eye of most bartenders and police officers -- the counterfeits look perfect. The photo and physical description are real. The holograms are exact copies, and even the bar code can pass unsophisticated scans.

"We're seeing these false IDs being generated from the same source out of China," said Steven Williams, chief executive of Intellicheck, which supplies detection equipment to federal agencies, law enforcement and businesses.

Eney's 19-year-old drinking companion said she can't recall who gave her the email address for "the Chinese guy." She made first contact through an email address supplied by the acquaintance. A prompt email reply laid out the deal.

"It was $300 if you just wanted one" license, she said. "It was $200 [each] for two and $75 [each] if you wanted more than 20."

"You can pick from a list of about 10 states," she said.

The shoe box with postmarks from China arrived in a matter of days. After initial consternation, she flipped over one of the shoes and ripped open the sole. Out tumbled 22 new, visually perfect driver's licenses.

Five weeks after the accident that left Eney and a 19-year-old female passenger dead, a bouncer checked driver's licenses outside the door of the Acme Bar and Grill, swiping them through a handheld electronic scanner. "You just get that?" a woman asked as she handed him her license. "Yeah," the bouncer said, "the police."

The new scanner was put to a test minutes later when a young woman handed the bouncer a Maryland license that looked real but was flagged as bogus three times by the scanner. "I can't let you in," the bouncer said, handing the license back.

The young woman flipped out her cellphone, calling a friend already inside the bar. "Kristin," she said loudly. "Can you hear me? It's Leah. I can't get in. It didn't scan."