By Michael Mroziak
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wbfo/local-wbfo-981391.mp3
Buffalo – Fake identification cards are a common tool used by many college students to get into bars or liquor stores. The business of making and selling them now stretches to China, where highly sophisticated forged IDs are being made and sold to buyers online.
Senator Charles Schumer, speaking in Buffalo on Wednesday, said over the past year numerous fake ID makers have opened shop in China, and are selling forged IDs to American buyers more than willing to send a photo and send a wired payment. These forgeries include the same watermarks, holograms and magnetic strips used in legitimate driver's licenses. The quality, Schumer says, is so good that it's fooling many bar owners, even when using equipment designed to spot fakes.
"It also has security implications, because this fake driver's license can be used to get somebody on an airplane, or into a place they shouldn't be because it has high security," said Schumer. "Our law enforcement people are very concerned about this at the federal, state and local levels."
The senator suggests the way to crack down on these sophisticated forged IDs is to cut off the funding that keeps these Chinese shops in business.
"We're calling today on Moneygram, PayPal & Western Union - the money wire houses - to work with the Department of Homeland Security to identify and then block cash payment transfers to these unscrupulous and illegal operations," said Schumer. "Frankly, we need to strangle the source of their funding. That will put them out of business."
Schumer says there is already legislation that allows Homeland Security to seek the assistance of money wiring companies in cases like these but until now it hasn't been enforced.
Schumer also notes that U.S. Customs is aware of the problem and confiscating thousands of these forged licenses, but added that sometimes the Chinese manufacturers are able to smuggle them into the U.S. by hiding them inside other items.