New fake ID scanner making a difference in Maryland bars and restaurants
MARYLAND- A local Maryland, minority-owned business has a goal to make bars, events, and restaurants safer. They developed Card 101, which brings classes to these places to teach them how to properly check ID’s and identify fake ones.
“There are a lot of people who deal with that problem, it’s been a consistent problem because we live in a resort area,” Eric Chaplin, owner and CEO of Card 101, said.
Chaplin said their biggest product they have put out there is their BiSu ID Scanner. “It’s an app you can subscribe to, a subscription service, call us up and we bring a device to your establishment,” Chaplin said. “What ends up happening it cards people and lets you know if the person is over age, underage, lets you know if the ID is fake, lets you know if the id is expired.”
Chaplin said this tool is used at locations across the Eastern Shore, including Ocean City and Salisbury; and what’s unique is that you can flag certain ID’s with descriptions such as fighting and more. “It can tell you the establishment of which they owe their tab to,” Chaplin said.
“The biggest thing is that these restaurants ban together to want to have a tool to help them communicate with each other,” Chaplin said.
This information is then shared with places subscribed to the service. The Ocean City Police Department said while they have a program dedicated to officers being a second a set of eyes to bouncers to identify fakes, they think BiSu can be a plus; especially because they’ve seen people try to get away with fake ID’s.
“Being able to have that cross reference whether somebody’s not paying their tab, they’re being disruptive by not letting them into the establishment, and be continued to serve alcohol that probably will prevent additional incidents that we may get involved, you know do they get over served and become disorderly,” Ashley Miller, OCPD Deputy Communications Manager, said. “So far, we have had 84, but looking back at that in 2021 we had 156 citations related to fake ID’s.”
While this new scanner was just rolled out this year, Chaplin said he’s all ready getting a thumbs up. “It’s been outstanding, we’ve had great reviews, great reviews from different bars and restaurants and owners coming back their establishment feels safer, they have better clientele,” Chaplin said.
