"10 Minutes Is Enough": Shocking Reality of Easily Forged Mobile IDs

[Anchor]

The mobile resident registration card verification service, which allows people to verify their identity via a smartphone app, is being used frequently these days. However, minors were recently caught attempting to use AI-forged versions of these IDs at bars. When we tested it ourselves, it took less than 10 minutes to create a forgery.

Reporter Dong Eunyeong has the story.

[Reporter]

Three men sitting in a bar suddenly jump up and try to run away, but the owner blocks them with his body.

On the evening of June 20, at a restaurant in Geumcheon-gu, Seoul, teenagers were caught trying to drink alcohol after presenting forged mobile IDs.

[Jeong Sang-heon / Affected Business Owner: I told them I would check their resident registration cards. They turned on an app I had never seen before and showed it to me. It looked exactly the same. The screen looked identical, but...]

Police arrived following the owner's report, but two of the individuals had already fled, and the one who remained had already deleted the app used to forge the ID.

The police confirmed that they were minors, but with no remaining evidence, they were all released with a warning.

Our reporting team used the same AI program the teenagers had shown the business owner to create a forged mobile ID ourselves.

After entering a few simple commands, a fake ID was completed in no time; we were even able to customize the photo, name, and date of birth.

This is a mobile ID created in 10 minutes using an AI program.

When compared to an actual ID, it is difficult to find any major differences.

Unlike in the past, when people would present someone else's physical ID or use Photoshop to swap photos, forgery methods have become much more sophisticated.

[Ahn Ji-sung / Lawyer: In the past, they had to hire someone to do it, but now it is at a level where a student can do it alone. If they just enter the right prompts, the crime becomes much easier to commit.]

In the case of mobile IDs, authenticity can be verified by scanning a QR code, but many business owners are too busy or are unaware of this method.

[Jo Han-na / General Manager, Yeonmu Alley-type Shopping District in Suwon: Older business owners just see the mobile ID and think it is real... If these verification apps could be distributed more widely, I think business owners in the shopping district would actively use them.]

Forging an ID using AI, which takes only 10 minutes, can lead to criminal punishment for forgery of official documents and violations of the Resident Registration Act, even for the act of forgery itself.

(Video reporting: Joo Yong-jin, Kim Seung-tae | Video editing: Lee So-young)

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