Fake ID cards yours for $51 on internet

By BRIDGET CARTER and SCOTT MacLEOD

Fake New Zealand driver's licences to enable underage drinkers into pubs are being sold on the internet.

Police, banks and alcohol groups were yesterday astonished when the Weekend Herald told them of Canadian website beatthebouncer.com, which sells fake card-type licences and other identification.

The main concerns were that criminals could obtain other false identification or try to cash cheques with cards bearing their own photograph but another person's name.

The website also highlights gaping holes in New Zealand law that make internet crime hard to police.

Proposed internet laws have stalled in Parliament.

Highway police, the Land Transport Safety Authority and the Department of Internal Affairs said there was little they could do to shut down the website, but Auckland internet police said they would try next week.

The site tells buyers to send their photograph, signature and $A40 ($51) to an address in Montreal, Canada, in return for a customised NZ driver's licence.

The fake licence differs from a real one in that the signature and a photograph are wrongly placed.

But more sophisticated versions of some licences include holograms for an extra $A20.

The website also sells a fake University of Auckland identification card that could be used to gain cheap student deals in shops and cinemas.

None of the agencies spoken to yesterday had any inkling that NZ licences were being sold on the internet.

Between them, they knew of fewer than 10 fake drivers licences being used - and they were amateur efforts.

But Transport Minister Mark Gosche said that if the problem was real he would ask police and other officials what could be done to clamp down on such websites.

Banks were most worried about the fake licences.

ASB spokeswoman Barbara Chapman said two forms of identification were needed to cash big cheques at the bank's branches.

But the website was worrying and needed to be sorted out so there was more protection for banks.

The National Bank's Cynthia Brophy said the site was "absolutely a concern" and she would alert security staff.

Land Transport Safety Authority spokesman Craig Dowling said false licences would show up when highway police used their computers to match names with numbers, but he said availability of the fakes on the internet was "a big concern" to the authority.

Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald, police national road safety manager, said highway patrols had found about two fake driver's licences in two years.

Staff would be told of the website to help them spot fakes.

Detective Superintendent Bill Bishop, police national crime manager, said anyone sending his or her details to the website could be convicted of obtaining a document, which carried a jail term up to seven years.

Internal Affairs said it would be worried about fake passports being sold, but had little to do with driver's licences.

The website asks for cheques to be sent to Robert Gygi at the Montreal address.

But Mr Gygi did not respond to e-mails and Canadian telephone operators had no listing for a Gygi in Montreal.

And when the Weekend Herald tried to contact the administrator of the website, the telephone number supplied was incorrect.

A supervising analyst at Auckland's Electronic Crime Laboratory, Barry Foster, said there was a jurisdictional problem with the website "mainly because it is not in New Zealand, but also because there's no legislation here dealing with it."

It was the first time Mr Foster had heard of NZ licences being sold on the internet, but there had been cases of youngsters making fake licences on their own computers, using cardboard and cheap laminating Machines.

Mr Foster said the laboratory would have to use Interpol in a bid to get Canadian authorities to shut down the site. If that failed, police would contact the internet service provider.

Customs' national manager of investigations, Matt Roseingrave, said the service tried to stop false documents entering the country, but it was impossible to check everything.

"We examine thousands of pieces of mail and there are millions."

NZ NetGuide magazine editor Nigel Horrocks said false identification sites were "a flourishing industry."

Alcohol Liquor Advisory Council spokeswoman Jennifer Harris said the website was "totally irresponsible and it's unfortunate that we can't do anything about it from here."

She said an underage person using a fake licence to buy alcohol could be fined up to $2000.