For any business, knowingly accepting fake IDs is illegal and puts them at serious risk of incurring penalties, including fines, jail time and suspension of their alcohol or business licenses. Some businesses have gone so far as to install electronic age-verification technology so they can catch underage students.

Typically when bartenders or bouncers catch an underage person with a fake ID, they confiscate it and send them away. As a display of humiliation, some bartenders go so far as to pin the fake ID up on the wall for everyone to see, while others turn the fake IDs over to the police.

“Some bars are notorious for informing us when they have been presented a fake ID, while others just don't bother with it,” said Officer Jones. “You are playing Russian roulette when you present a fake ID at a bar because the bar chooses the consequences.”

College women using fake IDs to drink alcohol can also face additional consequences. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism states that drinking makes young women more vulnerable to sexual assault and unsafe, unplanned sex.

With all that in mind, underage college women should weigh the consequences of using a fake ID and ask themselves: Is being tipsy for one night worth the risks?

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