If you are planning on buying a drink in a Bundaberg pub before your 19th birthday, you might want to steer clear of using a fake digital ID.<\/p>\n
Publicans and managers in the region are reporting a sharp rise in the number of fake digital IDs.<\/p>\n
This increase has prompted venues to introduce a “birthday present” notice \u2014 where minors caught trying to enter pubs and clubs with fake IDs are banned until after their 19th birthday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Digital licences must be scanned by an app to verify they’re legitimate.\u00a0 (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n
“Before digital IDs, I think I’ve had one fake ID in 15 years, whereas now we’re getting multiple per week,” the manager of the Sugarland Tavern, Chris Simons, said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a massive problem now.”<\/p>\n
Mr Simons said the fake driver’s licences looked almost perfect.<\/p>\n
“At a first glance, they all look legitimate, but the only way you can definitely check is using the Queensland government’s Verifier app to make sure that it is actually a legitimate licence,” he said.<\/p>\n
‘Birthday present’ notice<\/p>\n
There are roughly 20 licensed venues in the region, and all are part of the Bundaberg Bargara Liquor Accord and have agreed to measures to crack down on underage drinking.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lloyd Finnis says venues are cracking down on minors trying to sneak into pubs and clubs.\u00a0 (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n
“Once they’re caught and we know that they’re underage and they are trying to gain access to the venue, they get a birthday present before they turn 18, and they’re not allowed in the venue until they’re 19,” accord president Lloyd Finnis said.<\/p>\n
“All publicans are sick of this fake stuff, and now we’re really starting to push forward to try and squash this problem before it gets out of hand.”<\/p>\n
Mr Finnis said he believed many of the fake IDs originated in New South Wales.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Verifier app can be downloaded by venues for free.\u00a0 (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n
“New South Wales was the first one to produce a hell of a lot of fake IDs, and Queenslanders were getting a hold of NSW [fake IDs] and starting to use them up here,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I know some venues now refuse NSW digital IDs. If you’ve got a NSW digital, you either get your hard copy or you don’t come in.”<\/p>\n
Transport for NSW said driver licences and photocards contained several security features, such as holograms and watermarks, to protect individual identity.<\/p>\n
“Transport for NSW, Service NSW and NSW Police continue to work together to further strengthen and validate proof of identity across both physical card and digital driver’s licences,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
AI warning<\/p>\n
University of Queensland cybersecurity lecturer Priyanka Singh said fake IDs were so accessible because artificial intelligence (AI) was so widespread.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Priyanka Singh says young people often don’t realise the security risk of fake IDs.\u00a0 (Supplied: Priyanka Singh)<\/p>\n
“Two or three years ago, it was quite challenging, but now, given AI and all these smart GPT’s and everything, it’s so easy,” she said.<\/p>\n
Dr Singh said young people often did not realise the dangers of asking a stranger to create a fake ID with their information.<\/p>\n
“They just think of it as something to go and have fun. But it’s bigger than that because they’re compromising their information, their personal information, that can be later on used for scams,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I think there should be proper training and education, even at the school level.”<\/p>\n
The Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation said it regularly engaged with licensees to reinforce the need for vigilant ID checks \u2014 both physical and digital.<\/p>\n
The Department of Customer Service said the most secure way to validate a digital licence was by scanning the QR code with the verifier app, which can be downloaded by venues for free.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson said Queensland licences met strict international security and privacy standards, and fake digital licences would not pass when scanned with the app.<\/p>\n
Expensive mistake<\/p>\n
For managers like Mr Simons, the growing number of fake IDs is a worry and potentially financially damaging trend.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chris Simons says serving an underage drinker can be an expensive mistake.\u00a0 (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n
“I fear for my staff because, as much as they endeavour to do the right thing all the time, with how good some of these fake IDs are getting, if they’re not completely on their game, it would be very easy for one to slip through,” he said.<\/p>\n
Serving an underage patron can cost a staff member more than $13,000 in fines, and cost management more than $40,000.<\/p>\n
But Mr Simons said it was frustrating that the onus was almost entirely on the venue rather than the offender.<\/p>\n
Using a fake or false ID can result in a $500 fine, while a minor drinking alcohol at a licensed venue could receive a $4,000 fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you are planning on buying a drink in a Bundaberg pub before your 19th birthday, you might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,171590,171591,171589,145561,171593,171592,125781],"class_list":["post-300162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-digital-drivers-licence","tag-digital-fakes","tag-digital-ids","tag-ids","tag-licensed-venues","tag-pubs-and-clubs","tag-underage-drinking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}