Ever wondered what is checked when an ID scanner scans your card? Keep reading to find out exactly how ID scanners weed out fake IDs.
Fake IDs have existed for as long as real IDs have. Previously, it was easy enough to create a fake ID. You could even do your DIY project, as many teens did to buy alcohol or go to clubs that were age-restricted.
This might seem like a petty crime, but it’s not. Dram shop laws are extremely strictly implemented in the United States. This places the onus of ensuring that a minor does not get drunk and cause any damage to life and property, on you- the owner of the bar or liquor shop. You may end up paying heavy fines or even serving time for such neglect.
This is exactly why owners of all establishments that sell age-restricted products started depending on ID scanners. Long gone are the days when discrepancies in fake IDs could be ascertained by bare eyesight alone. Also, this leaves the door open to human errors and biases.
However, can all ID scanners tell fake IDs apart from real ones? If so, why do the fake ID sellers on online platforms advertise their IDs as “scannable”?
The answer is- It depends on the accuracy of the ID scanner. In this article, you’re going to discover what differentiates a fake ID from a real one. If your scanner isn’t proficient in scanning any of these variables mentioned, consider changing the model that you are using.
What Does the Scanner Check?
There’s a dilemma that ID scanner makers often face. ID scanners are meant for two related but markedly different purposes:
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They are supposed to quickly collect information on the card by reading the magnetic strip or the barcode.
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They are supposed to weed out the IDs that seem suspicious.
In the first case, the focus is on getting the correct information in the correct format. Therefore, security becomes a secondary concern. So, when the makers of ID scanners decide to focus their efforts on data collection primarily, they don’t tend to focus on microscanning technologies that are meant to pick out slight discrepancies.
Moreover, the added trouble comes from the fact that it’s pretty easy to fabricate magnetic strips and barcodes with corrected encoded information. The technology required to do so is readily accessible because it’s right there on the internet.
So, it’s futile to hope for an ID scanner to start beeping the moment a faulty magnetic strip or barcode is spotted. In all likelihood, in terms of technical accuracy, fake IDs are not going to raise an alarm. Therefore, the claims of the online fake ID vendors are, in fact, partially correct. The fake IDs are scannable.
However, advanced ID scanners will still succeed in weeding out fake IDs. How?
No matter how accurate the fake ID is, there will still be slight errors in the font, imagery, or even spacing. This is exactly what an advanced ID scanner searches for. Microscanning is the key.
Microscanning is also intimately related to the process of pattern matching. The ID scanner needs to compare each ID with a standard model to understand the slight differences.
How are Fake IDs Weeded Out?
Just like banknotes, all IDs (especially government-issued ones) are extremely unique. The intricate designs combined with proprietary fonts act as a great security feature. That’s not all. Each fine life, micro text, and image is unique too. The issuers of IDs ensure that the designs of IDs are impossible to replicate. You cannot get the same font or the same typeface from any regular print shop.
Therefore, these details are the first ones to stand out when ID cards are faked. You might think these differences ought to be caught by the naked eye but obviously, the makers of fake IDs don’t leave such glaring errors. The errors can only be spotted by examining the ID card on a granular level which only ID cards can do. Think of it in terms of a few pixels appearing more or less on the fake ID.
There’s something else you need to understand about pattern matching. You cannot just do a one-on-one comparison and get accurate results. The ID scanner needs to store its previous scans so that new IDs can be matched with them later. You don’t have to worry about laws against customer data collection in your state. Most advanced ID scanners allow you to easily erase the data collected if you wish to do so.
Still, counterfeiting technologies are improving hand in hand with the technologies required to create un-counterfeit-able IDs. Fluorescent overlays and holograms are meant to add an extra layer of security to your ID card.
How to Verify Holograms and Fluorescent Overlays?
Let’s first understand how fluorescent and holograms are tested. A specific white light or UV light is shined upon the ID to check the reflective quality of the ID. You need to ensure that your ID scanner has hardware sensors to analyze the effects of shining various kinds of light on the ID. Also, you need an ID scanner that has this custom UV lighting in the first place so that you can determine the authenticity of the reflection.
Still, it must be remembered that often fake ID issuers just port over real IDs to utilize these holograms and fluorescent overlays. In such cases, the test will turn out to be positive even if the information on the card itself is wrong.
Why is a Good Scanning Engine Crucial?
A quality scanning engine is exactly what sets a good ID scanner apart from an average one. A scanning engine is essentially software that is responsible for processing the information that is collected during the scan. This is why it is the most crucial part of an ID scanner.
A dependable scanning engine is not easy to build. Its job is not simply to micro scan or do pattern matching. It is responsible for building whole algorithms based on the data collected by thousands of scans. The algorithm is actually what weeds out the fake IDs. A bad scanning engine is simply not going to reach the correct inference even though it has all the same data that a good scanning engine does.
Unless you want false positives (which are bound to get you implicated in dram shop cases), you should most definitely ensure that the scanning engine of the ID scanner you are using is reliable. People often get distracted by the flashier features of ID scanners and ignore the scanning engine, which is essentially the brain of the scanner.
In Conclusion
Remember, an ID scanner might have the most perfect hardware and still make mistakes. But that doesn’t mean having an ID scanner with a state-of-the-art scanning engine, and a faulty card reader is any better. Both hardware and software aspects need to be satisfactory to avoid incorrect results. You also need to ensure that your ID scanner has the capability of micro-scanning and pattern matching. Unless you want false positives (which are bound to get you implicated in dram shop cases), you should most definitely ensure that the scanning engine of the ID scanner you are using is reliable.
