Fake ID's and DL's

[Taylor1430]

I come across many fake DL's but had a Virginia license that looked very very authentic a few nights ago. The way I discovered it is the female had an address on on her license with a city in Northern VA. I also found a pay stub that had the exact same street address but with a city in Maryland (her real address). This caught my eye so I ran the soundex through VA which did not come back. Then did a browse through MD and she popped up with the correct DOB (VA license says she was 23 when she was really 20).

I compared this to a known real VA license and they were identical as far as I could tell. I'm generally good at picking out fakes but this one was good. I have a book that shows current DL's from each state (I think its from Anheuser-Busch) and there was no way to tell.

So, couple of questions....How often do you guys come across very authentic fakes? I'm not talking about the obvious fakes but something that looks like the real deal. Additionally, are there any publications available for LE that shows different security features that aren't in the Anheuser-Busch?

[MRRBEST]

If i think its shady, I usually just have dispatch run the license by number, and then see if the readback matches, including descriptors.

Same or I just run it myself through DMV and check all the info.

[JI603]

Yup. I'll run the OLN before I dig through a book and compare fonts. The exception there is for Mexican IDs.

[Taylor1430]

In the end thats what I ended up doing...but I would not have realized it was fake had I not caught the address on the pay stub. I spoke to another officer who is excellent in detecting these things (is the alcohol inspector for a nearby county). His thought is that it definately appears real and believes that an employee at a DMV made it under the table. I'm not sure what checks/balances VA has for that but the soundex does not come back to anything.

[MRRBEST]

In the end thats what I ended up doing...but I would not have realized it was fake had I not caught the address on the pay stub. I spoke to another officer who is excellent in detecting these things (is the alcohol inspector for a nearby county). His thought is that it definately appears real and believes that an employee at a DMV made it under the table. I'm not sure what checks/balances VA has for that but the soundex does not come back to anything.

Interesting. I know one of our Specialized Units was able to catch someone from DMV doing the same thing. Basically for a couple hundred bucks just making DL's and putting them in the system with whatever info the buyer wanted. Glad they caught the person, just hope there aren't more like that.

[nuthead]

just hope there aren't more like that.

There are.

[DeputySC]

Mabey an employee at the DMV made it for her?