“Call me and tell me what you’re wearing. Then, you’re going to meet me on 60 East 14th in front of Nordstrom’s. You’ll hand me the envelope, and you’ll be on your way.”
A spy movie? Nope. It’s how Staples students get fake IDs.
As students reach their upperclassmen years, they find that more and more of their peers have false identification.
“Almost all of the upperclassmen have them, but freshmen and sophomores are starting to get them as well,” Brooke Berlin, ’14 said.
With this increase in the number of students obtaining fake IDs, there are more sketchy stories to tell. One of Brooke Berlin’s friends went into the city to get a fake ID and came home feeling a little shaken up.
“They had talked a few times on the phone and he had given her an avenue and street number to meet on. She met him, and he said let’s take a walk. She had to hand him the stuff without being obvious. Then she met him there a few hours later to pick up the IDs in the same secretive way… He could have easily ripped her off and taken the hundreds she had given him, or even worse, hurt her,” Berlin said.
Not only was this experience sketchy, but it was also a little scary. No matter where a student gets an ID from, there is always the risk of getting caught by parents or worse, the police.
A study of 1,098 students at the University of Missouri found that about 30 percent of participants had been caught with false identification.
“It’s risky in the city because the sellers could be unreliable and dangerous. It’s also risky online, though, because you have to ship it somewhere so it’s relatively easy to get caught by either parents or even some sort of law enforcement,” a junior boy who wished to remain anonymous said.
Students often make the decision to pick up their IDs themselves, to avoid the risk of somebody intercepting it in the mail. By having IDs shipped, students run the risk of their parents opening the package.
“One of my friends was supposed to pick up his ID but ended up having to get it shipped to his house. He came home from school, and there was a package at his door, and the tape was broken. He didn’t know if it was a postman or his mom or dad or something. He was so lucky he didn’t get in trouble,” Chris Mombello ’14 said.
The bottom line?
Fake IDs are risky to get and illegal.
