OC Police Report Influx Of Fake Internet IDs

SNOW HILL -- New, difficult to detect fake IDs have the Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) asking government officials and local businesses to help them crackdown on underage alcohol sales.

“These IDs are popping up all over Ocean City,” OCPD Sgt. Doug Smith warned the Board of License Commissioners (BLC) Wednesday.

Smith, along with Corporal Mark Wolinsky and Public Information Officer Mike Levy, visited the BLC to demonstrate methods to identify the new fake licenses as well as to ask the board’s help in alerting the business community to the problem.

The IDs are advanced enough to pass through most traditional checks, even electronic ones, said Smith. However, once clerks and bartenders know what to look for, he explained that the fakes are easy to spot.

Ordered online from a website going by the name of “ID Chief,” the fakes are being generated overseas in China and being illegally shipped into the U.S., often hidden in other products.

“They’re not coming from the United States,” said Smith.

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