BY ALLISON BARNARD
With bass blaring loudly and lights flashing to the beat, many young teenagers, eager to undertake in the festivities, tightly clutch their fraudulent id cards in anticipation. Each step taken towards the crowded club entrance is a step taken towards adulthood, whether it’s partying like an adult or being punished through incarceration. The biggest worry for these naive underage partiers is a night of sobriety and the confiscation of the $100 fake identification card. So few of them realize that they may also be affecting their fate in the legal system. Not only is it a risk to give away personal information in order to receive the card, but being caught trying to use one may also mean criminal punishment.
The perks of having a fake ID are alluring for those eager to prematurely enter the world of adult partying. With a full name, phone number and shipping address to complete the hundred-dollar transaction, each customer is shipped a their very own “golden ticket”. Yet, while they’re blinded by the excitement of their newly received alias, the process at the id manufacturing company much more complex. With each web transaction, you may be buying a fake personality, but companies are buying your authentic identity. According to Janice Kephart, the director of national-security policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, “There’s nothing more valuable than an American identity in the black market.” With the considerable market created as the result of the demand for these little cards, we as a community are ironically paying for our identities to be stolen.
Apart from gambling with the chance of having your personal information stolen, there are also severe punishments to those who get caught. According to the police department of the University of Central Florida, most college students, about 90%, aren’t aware of the true consequences of being caught with a fake id. Apart from the obvious fear of leaving a popular bar humiliated with $100 down the drain, few realize that the punishment is so much greater.
As opposed to the preconceived notion of a slap on the wrist, HG Legal Resources explain that “It is a felony in Florida for a person to have in their possession a driver’s license or identification card that is stolen, fake, counterfeit, forced, fraudulent or unlawfully issued.” For those who are unclear on what a felony is, it’s a big deal in the legal world and “is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5000 fine.” That means that on every job application you submit for the rest of your life, you have to forewarn your possible employers that you’ve committed a felony (As if finding a job in today’s market weren’t hard enough).
Just because you don’t get caught the first time committing this crime doesn’t mean that the risk of will ever go down. With your information exposed and the possible consequences now being more strictly enforced, having a fake ID-no matter the circumstance- is simply not worth the risk.
