BLOOMINGTON — Chris Ludy has heard it all. He's the ''IDNazi,'' the ''ID police'' — names yelled at him by IndianaUniversity students who've tried, unsuccessfully, to use fake IDsat the liquor store he manages a few blocks off campus.
He and his staff at Big Red Liquors use black lights to helpthem examine holograms on any number of state licenses that comethrough their doors. They check campus directories to see ifstudents' addresses match those given on the licenses. And theygrill people whose birth dates look doctored -- often keeping theIDs they suspect are fake.
''I'll ask them what their astrological sign is, just to see howthey react,'' Ludy says.
Now his store and several others near college campuses inIndiana have added one more tool to foil potential underagedrinkers: They're using scanners that read the bar codes andelectronic strips on the back of most states' driver'slicenses.
The devices are gaining popularity with liquor retailers, policeofficers and bar owners nationwide as fake IDs get ever-moresophisticated and difficult to spot.
These days, students can order fake IDs from any number of Websites or from fellow students, usually for $100 or more. Often, themore expensive fakes have holograms on them to make them appearmore real.
''As they get better, we need to get better,'' says JohnLivengood, president of the Indiana Association of BeverageRetailers, which has several members testing the scanning devicesfor this month's hard-partying college homecoming weekends.
Officials in Florida were among the first to use scanningdevices, targeting beach towns that are popular college springbreak destinations.
''There are literally thousands of people arrested,'' says Maj.David Myers, commander of the northern region for the FloridaDivision of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco.
Myers says most underage drinkers caught with fake IDs areordered to appear en masse in court the day after they receivetheir citations. Some pay a fine. Others opt to do communityservice by doing trash pickup.
''Panama City beach is one of the cleanest beaches in thecountry after the spring-breakers get done cleaning it up,'' Myersquips.
At Indiana University -- ranked by The Princeton Review as oneof the nation's ''top party schools'' -- students wondered how mucheffect the scanners will really have.
One 20-year-old student whose ID was confiscated at Big RedLiquors last spring said he thought the scanners would be a''discouragement'' to some students.
''But it's not going to help with the overall problem,'' saysthe student, who asked that his name not be used. ''As long as thedrinking age stands, there will always be underage drinking.''
Several students said having a fake ID was considered almost arite of passage -- one that could generally get them into a busybar, if not a liquor store (though some bar owners say they plan tostart using scanners, too).
''Most people I know have fake IDs and if they don't, they knowwhere to get them,'' says Trisha Brazelton, a 19-year-oldsophomore.
Jordan Conover -- a 22-year-old junior who had a fake ID beforehe turned 21 -- says he believes there should be more focus oneducating students about the dangers of binge drinking, which hasclaimed the lives of college students across the country.
Even those who use the scanning system concede that it is not,by itself, the perfect solution.
Some retailers note that the scanners sometimes don't work if alicense is bent.
A few states -- Alaska, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Tennessee and NewJersey -- don't have bar codes on their licenses, though many haveplans to add them. Georgia licenses also have coding that can't beread by most scanners, Myers says.
And already, some who make fake IDs are adding bar codes thatactually work in some basic scanners. (The IDLogix devices used inIndiana are tougher to fool because they can detect when the barcode information is not provided in a particular state's exactformat.)
Before they started using the scanners, employees at the15-store Big Red Liquors chain in Bloomington still confiscatedabout 100 fakes a year -- some of them downright laughable. One,for example, turned out to be a computer-generated Tennesseelook-alike ID stuck atop a hotel key card.
Donna Lattanzio, general manager of the Village Bottle Shoppeliquor stores near Purdue University in West Lafayette, says she'sbecome very good at spotting fakes. But she's glad to have thescanners as a backup -- for one, to help her fend off belligerentstudents who argue that their IDs are real.
''Not today, pal,'' she often tells them before sending them ontheir way. '''Stupid' is not written on my forehead.''
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