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It's Still Way Too Easy
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Terrorists to Trick TSA!
It is absolutely essential to our homeland security that authorities know who is getting on our airplanes. However, thanks to the flood of high quality fake IDs coming in from China, that task has become harder than ever. For as cheap as $50, anybody from anywhere with internet and an address can order a nearly undetectable fake ID of dozens of states delivered to their doorstep from overseas. These IDs are being used by kids to fool TSA just for fun. What happens when they fall into the wrong hands?
Fake IDs have been in the wrong hands before. The 9/11 hijackers had over 30 different IDs between 18 terrorists and, according to the 9/11 Commission, used these IDs as weapons. Khalid ali-M Aldawsari, convicted of a plot to use WMDs in New York during rush hour, listed obtaining fake IDs as his "next important steps" before he was arrested by the FBI. Hezbollah operatives used counterfeit Michigan driver's licenses to rent cars, hotels, and hide from police before detonating bombs on a tour bus in Bulgaria. The Boston Marathon Bomber mastermind had a reading list full of guides on ID counterfeiting. Most recently, the ISIS terrorists who attacked both Paris and Brussels used fake IDs to cross borders, wire money, and rent hotel rooms, including a safe house where the bombs were made.
It is far too easy for terrorists to use fake IDs as weapons again. The vast online counterfeit ID market, both on the public internet and the darkweb, has made frighteningly good fake IDs expediently available to criminals and terrorists worldwide. Most of these are being sold by counterfeiters based in China, who constantly ship massive quantities of our state IDs hidden in packages full of cheap trinkets and toys.
How are these IDs being used? According to my research, the vast majority of counterfeits are being used by underage minors looking to get into bars and drink, which presents significant public safety risks, and some use them to buy marijuana. Some are using fake IDs to buy fireworks. But others are using them for far more nefarious purposes. Some are using them to rent cars, hotel rooms, and board trains, like the al-Qaeda and ISIS training manuals advise. One Brooklyn man used a fake ID to buy a gun he planned to murder NYPD officers with. Many are using fake IDs to board airplanes, just like the 9/11 hijackers did.
Following are recent quotes posted on anonymous internet forums:
- "I'm flying home from school after finals, and my genius self forgets both my real ID as well as my passport in my room. Of course, I don't realize this until I've checked my bags, and I'm boarding in half an hour. However, I still have my God CT (this is by no means an advertisement, and meant simply as an "I'm a #$%# joke" story). Weighing my options of missing my flight or possible prison time/felony record, I wisely chose the latter. Turns out, it worked, and I am currently standing on the other side of airport security."
- "LOL @ TSA: Just saw the worst IL I've ever seen pass at the checkpoint. Didn't even scan or UV my drivers license. God bless America."
"Captain Krunk ID Review: My Colorado [fake] id got me thru Colorado Springs TSA airport security, and I don't mean in my wallet, as my main form of id."
These posts seem like they are from harmless kids experimenting with their high quality fake IDs, but there is absolutely nothing stopping terrorists from doing the same thing. Furthermore, my research shows that fake ID vendors are constantly getting orders from countries in the Middle East known to be hotbeds for terrorist activity. Some won't sell to these customers, but others will. It is far too easy for a terrorist to simply order a fake ID from China and use it to sit next to you on your next flight. It's time we close that dangerous vulnerability. It's time we shut down these dangerous counterfeit document mills.
We're a tiny organization with a lean budget, but thanks to contributions, we are helping to shut down these document mills and KEEP your identity documents OUT of the HANDS of criminals and terrorists!
No other charitable organization works on the issues we do,
from combating counterfeit identity documents flooding in from China, to protecting child identities, to educating college kids on the risks of using fake IDs, to making sure state DMVs are up to par with federal standards, and to keeping your driver's licenses and ID cards out of the hands of criminals and terrorists.
Your support allowed us to work on all of that and we need your help again to be effective in 2016. But, w
e really need your support to continue our daily operations.
Our work with legislators, policymakers, and in public forums throughout the United States to protect public safety through reliable and secure identity documents depends on it. We need your tax deductible contribution to keep our proactive efforts underway.
We're in the media, at Congress, at state legislatures, at DMVs, on college campuses, and at fairs and tradeshows all over the country educating hundreds of thousands of people on why secure identification matters to us, to our donors, and why it should matter to them.
This year, our opinions have been published in newspapers in Connecticut, Montana, Massachussets, Minnesota, Illinois, New Mexico, Arizona, North Dakota, and more. We have placed on op-eds in The Hill, Roll Call, and USA Today. We were featured on Fox News, Fox affiliates, and Newsmax. Our newsletters go to over a thousand important decision makers and our press releases have reached hundreds of thousands.
If you can't make a donation but plan on doing some shopping on Amazon, please consider using our Amazon Smile account. It doesn't cost you any extra money and a percentage of your purchases go right to Keeping IDentities Safe! Click the link on the right -
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| Keeping IDentities Safe in the News: |
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Time for a National Strategy on Fake IDs
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TSA, China and fake IDs
Over the last several years, a new Chinese export has found a thriving market in the United States: high quality, machine readable, counterfeit driver's licenses. For prices between $50 and $300, under-aged youngsters have been purchasing counterfeit driver's licenses from vendors based in China via the web.
Read our op-ed in The Hill
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How do we keep driver's licenses out of the hands of terrorists and criminals?
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By raising awareness
By working with law enforcement
By helping states comply with REAL ID
By working with state legislators all over the country
By providing research
By working every day to protect your identity documents!
We can only continue to do this with your support
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HELP US KEEP FIGHTING FOR YOUR IDENTITY SECURITY
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With your donation, we will continue to move this country towards securing our driver's licenses, keeping them out of the hands of criminals, identity thieves, terrorists, drunk drivers, and public benefits freeloaders who are draining our nation's health and welfare system.
If you can afford to make the donation now, you're getting the money to a cause you care about, and we need it.
Sincerely,
Keeping IDentities Safe
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