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or creases. Bend the card to see whether the laminate forms a crease or a wrinkle that wasn’t there before. I also see a lot of fakes that will completely peel apart with little to no effort, so check along the edge for a seam that doesn’t belong. Another handy trick I’ve figured out is to hold a flashlight or a black light directly against the card and turn it on. If the edges light up as though the card is made of fiber optic material, there’s a good bet it’s a fake.
Printing
If you look closely, the printing on the card can betray a fake in a lot of different ways. The color can be too light or too dark. The font might be too bold or even the wrong font. Spelling errors are fun to spot as well; I once saw a Montana ID that said the girl was from “Bilings,” which is not a suburb of Billings. Another Montana ID listed an address on a street that was definitely here in Port- land, Oregon, but the city listed was Portland, Montana, complete with a Portland, Oregon ZIP code. Montana ZIP codes start with a 5, not a 9.
UV
I recommend carrying a good black light when checking IDs. Ev- ery state has a UV feature of some sort on their IDs, and fakes of- ten fail to correctly replicate that UV feature. The images might appear fuzzy, or there might not be a UV image at all.
None of these tricks are completely foolproof, but they’re way more useful than the ID scanners I mentioned before. Try these tips for yourself, and I’ll bet you’ll be catching fakes in no time.
Nate Hazen is a bouncer and writer and is more skilled at checking IDs than a scanner. Bring your fake ID to him at Dixie Tavern and X Exotic Lounge, and add it to his collection.
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