It is no secret that many underage students use fake ID cards. If the fake is good enough, they can get underage students past the campus bars’ bouncers and into their favorite nighttime hot spots. With the bars’ high level of popularity on campus, University students are finding ways to obtain fake IDs and, apparently, they are not that hard to come by.

In order to report this story an anonymous source was used. He said he makes fake IDs for college students and that they are easy to make with a little help from E-bay, Photoshop, and Kinko’s.

“Go on E-bay and buy a fifty stack of PVC cards,” the source said. “After you do that, you can go to Kinko’s. They have white or clear sticky-back paper.”

The source said to use Photoshop and to scan the picture onto the over-21-year-old’s ID.

“You can print the image of the ID on the clear or white paper and put that on the PVC card,” the source said. “And you have your ID.”

The source also said that he uses an ID book that most bars and even banks use as a reference to ensure that water marks and seals are added if needed.

“You can make a really good ID or you can have a piece of paper stuck to a PVC card,” the source said. “There are varying degrees of how to do it. At a school in the city (Chicago) where bars are the only place (students) can go, you can get someone to pay you $150 if (the fake ID card) is good enough.”

The source added that for students on campuses like the University’s, he usually charges about $75. He said this is because there are other outlets for nightlife aside from the bars, and students are not willing to pay that much for a fake ID card.

The source compared the process of producing and selling fake ID cards to the business of selling drugs. The source said his profits, upwards of $5,000, were enough to live on.

“I never had a job my freshman year of college,” he said. “I never needed one.”

Not all fake IDs, however, are good enough.

Kevin Casey, doorman at The Clybourne and sophomore in LAS, said that he spots about 10 fake IDs a week.

Casey said that there is no formal training for doormen, but they are expected to complete two courses that teach them how to identify ID fraud at the bars.

There is a rumor that females have an easier time getting into bars with fake IDs than male students do, and Casey admitted that he is aware of the bias toward girls.

“I know some people might (be less strict with females), but I know Clybourne and C.O.’s (Daniels) cut down on that,” Casey said. “You’re really not supposed to do that. You’re just supposed to do your job.”

Jos‚ Paz, freshman in LAS, said that a more lenient fake ID and drinking policy is essential to the bars’ success.

“I don’t think there is any way that there could possibly be as high of a turn out if the bars actually enforced the drinking policies and admittance policies,” Paz said. “People go to the bars to drink. If they want to sit around and chat they would go to a caf‚ or something.”