With the start of the new school year, football season and weekend parties, one of the main concerns for many underage students is how they can get their hands on alcohol.

To solve this predicament, many resort to asking upperclassmen they know to supply their liquid dreams. This begging of upperclassmen is typically how the majority of underage students acquire their booze, but for a select few, this is too much hassle. Meet the students with fake IDs.

With a good fake, underage students can usually purchase alcohol at many liquor stores undetected and potentially test the waters at the local bars. But with a renewed focus from law enforcement on minimizing the use of fake IDs, there is talk that they could be a dying breed of collegiate thuggery.

The Iowa Department of Transportation recently released a news report about the serious consequences that come with making, distributing or using a fake ID. And their recent crackdown efforts show they have been successful, so far.

According to Iowa DOT, a recent bust in Cedar Falls led to the arrest of two individuals and the seizure of 24 fake licenses. On top of that, more than 1,700 fake IDs, many of which were headed for Iowa universities, have been captured in the Chicago area since the beginning of 2011. This has been seen by many as a serious deterrent to students trying to get their hands on fakes.

“Falsifying a driver’s license is a serious misdemeanor,” said Lt. Elliott Florer of the ISU Police Department. “First offenses can carry up to a year in jail and a heavy fine. Second offenses can be much worse.”

A recent issue has been that many students who wish to purchase fake IDs have resorted to using the Internet, which only expands the problem. The risk is that, in buying on the Internet, students actually give their financial and/or personal information to counterfeit ID makers in the United States or overseas and then ironically the students themselves become victims of identity theft.

The Iowa DOT report warned of the possibility that parents could “wake up tomorrow morning and find a lien is in place on their home or a credit card acquired in their name, simply because their child gave personal information to an overseas Internet site.”

Additionally, the process in making fake IDs also has become much more sophisticated than in years past. In turn, states have had to enhance their techniques in creating counterfeit-proof driver’s licenses and other forms of identification.

“Laminating fake licenses has switched to directly printing fakes,” Florer said. “Improvements in technology lead to improvements in counterfeiting. It is important to stay one step ahead.”

But how good are the latest fake IDs? Many newer versions of fakes have adjusted to the new anti-counterfeit measures, but law enforcement and businesses still have ways to identify a fake.

“In detecting a fake, I would say the initial part is a hunch,” said Jon Jansen, a bartender at Cafe Baudelaire. “It’s more than just reading the ID, it’s reading the body language of the person … a person who has a fake tends to be a lot more nervous.”

This appears to be universal among local businesses in Ames. As Jansen pointed out, having dealt with many fake IDs in the past, he has become well-versed in determining the authenticity of a driver’s license. Because of this, along with a fake ID training course put on by the Ames Police Department for local businesses, Cafe Baudelaire and other bars and restaurants have built up a strong reputation of identifying fakes and deterring students from using them.

“As far as IDs go, there are a lot of things to look for,” Jansen said. “If it’s expired quite a bit, then it’s most likely a fake. Additionally, a person who tries to use a fake, they will use the birth years of 1987 to 1989 … they want to be 22, 23, or 24 years old, not 21. Also, Iowa IDs are the easiest because the newest ones have raised text, so it’s almost impossible to fake it.”

Jansen went on to say that if bartenders or bouncers have probable cause to think that a driver’s license is fake, they have the right to seize the license until the police can come by to verify it. Standard procedure would be that for the bartenders or bouncers to ask for an alternative form of identification.

Jansen himself has asked for up to five forms of identification at a time. This may seem like a pain for many who are under suspicion, but the reality is that these preventative measures keep businesses from paying hefty fines and allow them to stay in businesses and continue to serve alcohol to those of age.

So, given that businesses and law enforcement are aware of the issue and have become adept to detecting fake IDs, one has to wonder if this will stop students from purchasing fake IDs in the future.

“My fake ID made my ability to get alcohol a lot easier,” said an owner of a fake ID who wished to remain anonymous. “But I would not try getting into a bar in Ames … I’m already breaking the law and I don’t want to get confronted and lose it. For the liquor stores, I would say they are competent at catching fakes because even I have had a scare or two.”

It is true that it would be impossible for businesses and the law to stop everyone from using fake IDs to buy alcohol, but that does not make it a good idea to buy one.

If one is caught falsifying a document like a driver’s license, the punishment will far outweigh the thrills of getting alcohol while underage and the long term effects will make most regret they ever considered getting one. This is especially true when students graduate and look for a job.

Employers will look for almost any reason to narrow down their pool of candidates, and a misdemeanor of falsifying a driver’s license on your record will almost guarantee that your resume does not see the light of day.

“Stick to a safer scene than trying to get fakes,” Jansen said. “It’s not worth it in the long run, and you’ll have a lot less fun than you envisioned.”