4 ms·
What state are you talking about? AFAIK when you say >I can order a copy of my drivers license and change the address to "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington
by pak 15y ago
What state are you talking about? AFAIK when you say
>I can order a copy of my drivers license and change the address to "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC" and they'll ship it to me quick as can be.
some states (e.g. New Jersey) mark the new license as a duplicate copy, which causes increased scrutiny by police officers and other ID checkers. And most states do send something to the old address, if only a simple notice stating the change of address.
Likewise, USPS sends a notice to both addresses if you activate their mail forwarding service, so you can't forward somebody's mail to your address and reorder their license. (Unless they are on vacation...) All of that is mail fraud which is a federal offense and probably a felony.
That all gets you a license with somebody else's picture, so you need to be a very close match with them to be able to use it--LulzSec isn't dumping pictures of their targets yet, so that means for a lot of facebooking.
As for a brand new ID, I wouldn't say it's impossible to jump through all the hoops you have described in para 3, but you'd have to pick somebody that does not already have an ID in the state you are getting a license from, and somebody that you are sure will not be contactable as a result of all your shenanigans (i.e. missing without a death certificate), or your fake license is bound to be useful for only a short period until the IRS and credit agencies catch up with the real person and that victim files a report of identity theft, freezing/suspending it. The next time you get pulled over with that license, it's lights out. Additionally, you can't just walk out the door of a DMV with a new license, you have to wait for it to be shipped a real address and if your forgeries are detected before then, police may be waiting to see who picks it up. That risk probably serves as a sufficient deterrent, no?
- calloc 15y agoNew ID in Arizona was simple, walk in, fill out the paperwork, walk out with a valid drivers license. No waiting for it to be mailed.
- peterwwillis 15y agoFlorida and D.C. I believe there is some tiny print indicating a dup, and nobody ever looks at it in the real world. Neither send notice after changing the address on the license. There's no USPS address change required here, so no notification. Honestly, it's not hard to find somebody with a beard with kinda-close skin color, and go to a party store and buy some makeup. Again we're talking about somebody who just wants a quick fake and not, say, a terrorist or drug dealer who can pay for a really good counterfit. Why would they not already have an ID? You just get a reissue, or yes, go to the state next door and get a replacement (which may void out the other state's ID, but maybe you don't care if they find out after? I dunno). As long as you don't use the stolen identity for anything but travel I don't see how anybody would find out. Also, i'm preeeeeety sure they do make new IDs at the DMV so you don't have to wait for it to be mailed. I think I got one handed to me, but that was a while back. Anyway, just specify a different mailing address for them to mail it to ("i'm moving and i don't live there yet"). edit And seeing as Arizona will hand you one as below commenter says, i'm 85% sure Florida does too. Every 3.8 seconds someone has his or her identity stolen. This indicates to me that there is not enough deterrent. Perhaps there are even easier ways than what I outlined but I am not a criminal so I have no idea.