The ID Space

A reporter at the Arizona Republic recently wrote a great article about the booming fake document market in Arizona, illegal immigrants, identity theft and how business is about to get even bigger.

The State’s new employer-sanctions law requires verification of worker eligibility through a federal system called the Basic Pilot Program. The system works to weed out made-up social security numbers but it won’t detect when someone is using a stolen identity.

This program makes it kind of hard to comply with the new law I blogged about last week and how employers risk prosecution if they don’t fire workers whose names and social security numbers don’t match. The agency that manages the program is rolling out a new feature soon which will match photos on green cards with photos stored in a government database.

It sounds cumbersome – especially when there is a much easier way for employers (and the government!) to spot a fake id that won’t break the bank or slow down the process.