Senator targets fake IDs in Rockville Centre news conference

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U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer called Tuesday for a crackdown on high-tech counterfeit driver’s licenses that are making underage drinking on Long Island and across the country more prevalent.

Schumer held a press conference at Kasey’s American Grill, on Park Avenue, to denounce the fake IDs that are being bought in bulk from vendors in China and that are nearly undetectable by bar employees. “These IDs are nothing more than a free pass for underage kids to get their hands on booze,” Schumer said, “and the consequences, unfortunately, can be very deadly.”

According to Schumer, the IDs can be made to look virtually identical to a number of states’ licenses, and include features like holograms, watermarks and magnetic strips that can be scanned like those on legitimate licenses.

More than 1,700 fake IDs from China were recently confiscated at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Schumer said, adding that others have been found in locations as diverse as a North Dakota residence and a Washington, D.C., nightclub. The senator explained that middlemen collect photos and information and send them to China, where the fake IDs are produced.

“And it’s become common knowledge to teens on Long Island that phony IDs are easily obtained from Chinese sources,” Schumer said. “Once our kids get these fake IDs, bar doors literally can get opened for them.”

Because the forged IDs are so difficult for bar owners to identify, Schumer has called on the major wire transfer services, like PayPal and Western Union, to identify and block cash payment transfers to Chinese operators. “If we stop them from wiring the money, the whole enterprise will stop,” he said, because the Chinese counterfeiters do not take credit cards. “We need to strangle their source of funding and put them out of business.”

If the wire transfer services would work with the federal Department of Homeland Security, Schumer said, it would not be difficult to pinpoint the sources of the fake IDs.

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