"WildBlueYonder76" wrote in message
oups.com...
I was issued my SEL in 2002, shortly after 9/11. I was astounded that
the ticket was just that, on an index card labeled "cut here". No
picture, fingerprint, nothing. Great, they use our Social Security
numbers, easy for ID theifs.

I got mine issued (in July. 2002) sans SS# for that reason. For quite some
time IIRC you were able to get a random ID instead of your SS#.


My NY driver's licence has picture, bar code, tamper-resistant glass
beading. Really, the FAA has to do something about tamper proofing the
ticket.


When was the last time you were asked for your pilot's license as a form of
identification? European driver's licenses look like our pilot certificates
because they have national ID cards that are more like our passports. In
this country the main reason drivers' licenses have become so complex is
primarily to make it harder for kids to get fake IDs to buy liquor. As a
result on nearly any college campus I've been to you'll find somebody who
knows how to obtain extremely high-quality false IDs. Of course you could
say the same for immigration paperwork too.

When I was in college (94-98) the staties busted a kid in the engineering
school with $50,000 worth of equipment in his room (idiot). I knew one of
the cops involved and he said the IDs he was turning out were utterly
indistinguishable even side-by-side with the real thing. Back then the going
rates were $75 for a crummy fake that might work in a nasty liquor store to
$150-200 for something you could get away with showing to a cop. I haven't
asked lately but I suspect that all that's changed is that they've gotten
more expensive.

-cwk.