I’ve seen very few good fakes. It’s far more likely to come across a “real” ID that’s been issued to someone else. Last week I turned away a girl with a perfectly legitimate ID issued to someone who looked nearly identical to her, only 6 inches taller.
The specific holograms used by each state are a good, simple way to determine if it’s valid as no one who’s not spending hundreds of dollars will have access to.
Nearly every fake I’ve seen will have one of severally commonly available commercial holograms. These give a false aura of authenticity to someone unfamiliar with them.
Did the fake PA license have a repeating pattern of the names of the states counties and the image of a keystone, or did it just have some small circular “official-looking” hologram seal?
An ID checking guide is a vital part of my “toolkit”. Several places I’ve worked have used scanners to read the mag-strip or bar-code on IDs but I don’t care for them. I feel they tend to make the person checking depend too much on the machine and not enough on their eyes. All they do is validate their authenticity, not weather or not it was issued to the person presenting it.
Most of the bartenders I work with can’t spot a fake worth a damn. Maybe this is because I’m there so they don’t have to worry about it.
My first job was as a cashier in a supermarket (in PA so we didn’t sell booze). I was told to *never *mention the senior discount (55+) unpromted, especially if the customer was female. If a customer was clearly over about 70 I was to give it automatically; otherwise I was to wait until the customer said something. If they didn’t say anything until after they payed I was to apolgize and send them to the courtesy counter. Very, very few women would complain about not getting the discount, and those that did were extremely nice about it (often apologizing to me for not telling me they were over 55). Even women who asked for the discount didn’t really seem to mind if the casheir forgot to put it on.
My local Wegmans cards everyone, regardless of age. I’ve been behing people older than my parents who got upset because they didn’t have ID or it was expired. I can understand the caution; it’s only very recently that any supermarkets in PA found a loophole that let’s them sell beer. And only a few supermarkets bother using that loophole.
I went to a state store on my 21st birthday. Didn’t get carded. I was kinda pissed because I’d always been too scared to try and use my fake ID in one because I figured “it’s the LCB, of course I’d get caught”. :smack:
It depends on the place and how recently they’ve been busted. I went out to the movies with my wife and got carded! This was at the Vic Theater Brew & View in Chicago. It’s a concert venue that shows movies on nights when they don’t have concerts. The place is pretty bad with mediocre projection and, so some inexplicable reason, shitty sound. But they show three second run films for $5. They also serve beer. I don’t want beer, I don’t drink beer, I don’t drink any alcohol. And I’m 50 years old and look it, with wrinkles and gray temples.
And these clods carded me! I didn’t bother to have my ID with me as we take the L and bus everywhere, we weren’t allowed to go see a movie!
All I can figure is that they got busted for serving underage, and the boss had decided “Everybody gets carded! No exceptions!”
Me, after my first half-marathon at Disneyland, limped into TGIFriday’s next to the hotel with my friends for dinner. I ordered a drink - the server said “Sure, can I see some ID?” THIS HAPPENED ON MY 37th BIRTHDAY!
There is a beer store two streets away from my house. I wanted to make sure I got there before they closed, so I walked over. When I walked in the door just before closing time, there was a young man trying to buy beer and making a fuss about showing his ID. The clerk, somewhere around college age, said “No ID, no beer” and the young man conceded. Once the clerk looked at the ID, he started asking the typical “fake ID” questions. After the young man answered them all (DOB, address, middle name, etc.) correctly the clerk said “This isn’t your ID”. The young man started to get more agitated but settled down right quick when the clerk said “This isn’t yours. This is your brother’s ID. He’s in my Chemistry class (at local college).”
The young man was immediately dejected. The clerk put the ID in a drawer behind the counter and told the young man “Tell your brother I’ll bring it to class on Monday.” The young man leaves.
As I’m making my purchase, the clerk picks up his cell and calls the brother. “Dude, do you know your little brother has your ID?” The rest of the side of the conversation I could hear led me to believe the brother did not know, and there was going to be some conflict when the young man got home.
I once cut an obviously fake ID (New Jersey was spelled New Jersay) in half in front of a guy. I even handed him the phone and dared him to call the cops. And the best part; he was buying tobacco and was of legal age for that. He just got confused and handed me his booze fake ID instead of his real ID.
