Forging for a living

The folks at the title loan company were suspicious. Here was this guy with a new car, one with a book value somewhere in the mid-$20,000s. He had enough dough to pay cash for this car. But now he wanted to take out a $5,000 loan using the car as collateral. Something didn’t jibe.

The company called the Department of Motor Vehicles Compliance Enforcement Division. Investigators there established that the title was a fake. Police officers from the CED headed down to the title company, where they witnessed the man’s attempted transaction with the title company, then arrested him.

The man didn’t have only a fake title to the vehicle. He also had a fake registration—even bogus license plate decals. Where’d he get them?

“A lot of the time, people won’t tell you where they got this stuff,” said Allen Byers, DMV compliance enforcement investigator. “Or they’ll just say they got it ‘on the street.’ This guy—he just rolled.”

The man gave investigators the Reno address—a house on East Second Street—where he said he’d paid $100 for the whole fake-vehicle document package. He gave investigators what he said was the name of the individual who sold him the package, “Mel.”

Byers said the documents were nearly perfect. And he marveled at the bargain price that the counterfeiter was charging for the package deal, which can cost a good deal more than $100.

“We’ve seen reports of up to $1,200,” Byers said.

Byers took a fat file folder from his desk drawer. As he opened it, a handful of drivers’ licenses fell onto his desk. Many more were paper clipped to stacks of paper. Fake IDs. Or suspected fakes. In fact, this file was the one that contains cases that the CED has on hold.

“It’s just that we don’t have enough information to pursue these,” Byers said. “We have so many cases going on that we have to weed ’em out as to which are worth investigation.”

Byers estimated that the DMV arrests two or three people a week who are suspected of using fake documentation to obtain drivers’ licenses or car registrations. Since the state shifted to the Digimarc photo system—a digital watermarking technology—for driver’s licenses, more than 100 cases of suspected fraud have been spotted.

The Digimarc system was piloted in Minden about a year ago. Now it’s being used in all 21 DMV offices. The system stores a driver’s photograph on the state’s computers. That makes it easy to catch a person with a fake ID that’s been made using a substitute photo.

For the half-dozen or so officers who work the DMV beat for all of northern Nevada, pursuing fraud has come to take up an increasingly large chunk of time. The CED’s primary responsibility is regulating the auto vehicle industry in Nevada, a job that entails regular inspections of everything from car dealerships to wrecking yards.

“A lot of people don’t know we exist,” Byers said. Reno’s CED office is tucked away in a corner of the DMV on Galletti Way. From Byers’ desk, you can hardly hear the DMV loudspeaker calling out numbers to waiting clients: “Now serving B-823 at counter No. 12. Now serving B-823 at counter No. 12.”

Byers’ office is spare and tidy, with pictures of the officer riding in a rodeo, a photo collage starring his daughter and a framed award—the Silver Star. Byers, an Elko boy from four generations of Nevada ranchers, received the award during his six-year stint with the University of Nevada Police Department. A van parked on a hill on the UNR campus had started on fire. As it burned, it began to roll down the hill, toward pedestrians.

“It started down the street, and I drove my patrol car into its path to stop it,” Byers said, matter-of-factly.

He’s been with the DMV for eight years now. The rise in document fraud and identity theft has him concerned.

“It’s become out of hand,” he said. “Just by getting a name and a Social Security number … the way it ruins people’s lives is incredible.”

Most of the fake IDs that Byers comes across are not found in the hands of precocious 19-year-olds who want to get into local bars and clubs.

The majority, he said, are being sought by people intent on nefarious activities.

“There’s usually a reason for them wanting that other identity, and it could be criminal,” Byers said.

Banks in the United States estimate that identity fraud costs them about a billion dollars every year, according to the DMV. And U.S. terrorist Timothy McVeigh used a fake driver’s license to rent the truck used in the Oklahoma City bombing.

The CED officers obtained a search warrant for the home on East Second Street where they suspected counterfeit documents were being made.

On April 17, the Reno Police Department’s SWAT team surrounded the house and went in. The RPD assisted the DMV police, Byers said, because it was feared the home may also contain drugs and weapons.

When the police arrived, the only individual in the house was Melanie Marie Swearinger, 24. She was arrested on felony charges of forgery and possession and sale of false identification, as well as misdemeanor charges of possession or use of another’s birth certificate. Swearinger was booked into Washoe County Jail.

After the house was cleared, the DMV investigation team went in for a look. They found more than 100 fraudulent documents and a high-end computer system.

“Titles, IDs, birth certificates,” Byers said. “I was surprised at the volume. We weren’t expecting it to turn out so big. … This is probably the biggest [bust] we’ve done since I’ve been here. I think it made a good impact.”

Officers found about 200 compact discs with images of documents from states across the country, Byers said.

It’s easier to pass off a fake document, like a vehicle title, from another state because the folks who work the counters at the DMV—though trained in spotting fakes—often don’t know all the security features of official documents printed in all 50 states.

As far as police know, Swearinger had lived in the house for only three months.

“We don’t think it was a new business that had just started,” Byers said of the allegations against the woman. “If it was, she must have been very, very busy.”

Swearinger posted bail the same day she was arrested.

With the ability to make fake IDs, isn’t there a good chance that a talented maker of fake documents could craft a new identity and never be seen again?

The concept is remniscent of the movie, Catch Me If You Can. In the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Frank Abagnale, a real-life con artist who cashed millions of dollars worth of fraudulent checks while being chased by the FBI.

Byers said he hasn’t seen the movie.

“I live out in the sticks—in the Virginia City Highlands,” he said.

As far as Swearinger showing up for a court date?

“We’ll see," Byers said.