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Fake ID cards' key features: Scannable bar codes, UV images

Buying a fake ID on the Internet seems as legitimate as that Ugandan prince promising to send you $3 million after you wire him $3,000.

Buying a fake ID on the Internet seems as legitimate as that Ugandan prince promising to send you $3 million after you wire him $3,000.

Once you press a send button or drop a money order in the mail, and hundreds of dollars are flying off toward Asia or Europe, it's an international crapshoot. Don't cry to the authorities if you get burned, because they don't care.

"Everybody just needs to wait until they're 21," said Mike Horan, a spokesman for New Jersey's Motor Vehicle Commission. "It will come soon enough."

The website 21overnight.com, which reviews and links to sites that sell "novelty" IDs, says all fakes need to:

* Be printed on PVC.

* Contain the holograms and UV images for the state for which the ID is ordered.

* Be able to scan via bar code or magnetic strip.

Ironically, 21overnight.com doesn't recommend buying IDs from American or Canadian websites, claiming that "they're all scams." But China, where idchief.com makes its wares, is legit.

One 18-year-old Pennsylvania college student said he paid $100 for his out-of-state ID Chief card because he made a bulk order with friends. The group sent a money order and got their IDs in two weeks. He said he knows 25 to 30 people who have used ID Chief. "They work," the student told the Daily News on condition of anonymity. "I haven't had any problems with it."

Based on hundreds of comments on BroBible.com, a website for guys who would call each other "bro," ID Chief is a wealthy man who makes good fakes, particularly Pennsylvania replicas.

The website www.theidshop. com includes a toll-free number to call for more information. That number leads to a pleasant female voice that refers callers back to the website. The ID Shop doesn't sell Jersey IDs - an apparent challenge for ID-makers - but appears to have passports if you're a wannabe Jason Bourne.