U.S. Shuts Down Web Sites That Sold Fake ID Templates

Two Internet sites that allowed customers to generate phony identification--from driver’s licenses to birth certificates--have been shut down by a temporary court order that federal officials pledge to make permanent.

The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday it is seeking to close Tarzana-based Info World for catering to lawbreakers through two Web sites selling templates and software to generate false documents, said FTC attorney James A. Kohm.

“They have no legitimate use,” Kohm said of the documents. “And in fact, they are used to facilitate illegal activity such as underage drinking and identity theft.”

Regulators are seeking to recover all income generated by the two sites. Kohm would not say how much that was, but Kirk Walder, of the U.S. Senate subcommittee on investigations, said the sites produced estimated revenues of $23,000 from January 1999 to March 2000.

Walder said his office had investigated more than 100 Web sites offering to sell or provide false identification.

Congress is working on legislation to crack down on the practice of providing false documents over the Internet. Known as the Internet False Identification Prevention Bill, the measure would make it a crime to use computers to produce or sell so-called “novelty” fake IDs.

Kohm identified the operator of the Info World sites as Jeremy Martinez. Investigators said they believe he operated the sites out of an apartment in Tarzana and, later, from a house in Chatsworth.

Martinez declined to comment, but his lawyer denied that he had done anything wrong.

“The FTC slammed Jeremy without any warning,” said attorney Megan Gray.

Gray said Martinez, a marketing specialist in the technology industry, was simply offering software to “create a novelty ID card for a Halloween costume, party gifts or special passes to a bachelor party or jokes. It’s up to somebody else what they want to create.”

But Kohm disputed that contention. “Our concern was the driver’s licenses and birth certificates that closely approximated the real thing,” he said. “There’s no novelty use for real Social Security numbers.”

Federal regulators contend that Info World maintained two Web sites that included templates of state ID cards, driver’s licenses and birth certificates, as well as programs that generate false Social Security numbers.

Customers would pay $29.99 for 45 days of access to the Web sites. From there, they could download programs and templates for production of the fake documents, according to Kohm.

A federal judge in Los Angeles issued a temporary restraining order shutting down the Web sites for at least 10 days starting Dec. 5.

Prosecutors are scheduled to be back in court Friday to argue for a preliminary injunction to extend the ban through a trial in which federal officials will be seeking a permanent injunction.

The FTC has an identity theft hotline, (877) 438-4338.