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(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick

Fri, Aug 20th 2010 10:03am




Filed Under:
greencards, john quincy adames, john quincy adams, typo, us government, visa


Do US Visa Documents Have A Typo?

from the time-to-change-the-fraud-prevention dept

Our friends over at the always excellent Notcot were recently playing around with a microscope and noticed what certainly appears to be a typo on the US visa and border crossing card. The back of the card has very tiny etchings of every US president and every state flag -- but the etching of 6th US president John Quincy Adams appears to have a typo, calling him John Quincy Adames with an "e" added into the last name. Take a look:



That seems like a pretty big mistake. However, some are suggesting that it was done on purpose. In the comments to the Notcot post, two specific theories are presented: the first is that JQA changed his last name to distinguish himself from his father. Doing some quick searches around various bios of Adams, however, shows absolutely no support for this one. Even the White House's own page on JQA spells it Adams and makes no mention of such a change.

The other explanation makes a lot more sense. It's that this is a form of fraud/counterfeiting detection. Similar to how dictionaries would sometimes insert a fake word or phone books would insert fake people/numbers to try to "catch" if anyone was copying their work, perhaps the US government added the extra "e" on the assumption that counterfeiters would actually spell JQA's name correctly -- thus giving them a way to spot a fake. Of course, that's a pretty weak form of anti-counterfeiting, but in combination with some other techniques, perhaps it's useful. Either way, it's an amusing bit of trivia...

27 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    Occam's Razor says otherwise....

    icon
    GeneralEmergency (profile), Aug 20th, 2010 @ 10:24am

    The most likely reason is....

    Government Employee Incompetence.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    identicon
    rabbit, Aug 20th, 2010 @ 10:26am

    oh, mike, you make me laugh!

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    icon
    Edward Costello (profile), Aug 20th, 2010 @ 10:40am

    Could also be a result of the US outsourcing the creation of certain visa and passport documents in 2007-2008 (not sure if it's still the case). Outsourced passports netting govt. profits, risking national security.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    Re: Occam's Razor says otherwise....

    icon
    ChurchHatesTucker (profile), Aug 20th, 2010 @ 10:41am

    Like cats, the government will always address mistakes with that "I meant to do that" look. Only without the cute.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  

    You stole my name...

    identicon
    Rabbit80, Aug 20th, 2010 @ 10:49am

    I feel violated - where do I send the cease and desist?

    /Sarcasm

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  

    Give them a break!

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 20th, 2010 @ 10:52am

    Oh Mike, give them a break. The design of the Visa documents were probably outsourced. Besides, you're in on the ground floor, Mike. These documents will be valuable by Chinese Collectors in 50 years when the US ceases to exist as a nation. Lack of pride in gooder spellings and grammars increases collectability. If you need examples, look at the what error notes are going for.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  

    Re: You stole my name...

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 20th, 2010 @ 10:52am

    *hops*

    "i meant to do that" look. only with the cute.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  8.  
    identicon
    tuna, Aug 20th, 2010 @ 10:54am

    The US did this to military IDs in WWII. The nazis forged them but always used the correct spelling thus being caught.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  9.  
    icon
    Andrew (profile), Aug 20th, 2010 @ 10:56am

    I'm amazed you gave any time whatsoever to the "JQA renamed himself" comment. Why bother?

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  10.  
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    ofb2632 (profile), Aug 20th, 2010 @ 11:01am

    sometimes its not worth paying the lowest bidding contractor do to the work.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  11.  

    Texas Drivers Licenses

    identicon
    matt, Aug 20th, 2010 @ 11:06am

    The drivers licenses in Texas have the word "Directive" printed on the back. The first 'i' in directive is not dotted thus giving an added method of fraud detection. Sounds like they did something similar here.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  12.  

    He invented everything.

    icon
    Beta (profile), Aug 20th, 2010 @ 11:07am

    Benjamin Franklin deliberately misspelled "Philadelphia" on some of the first American banknotes, specifically to trip up counterfeiters, and the sources I've read suggest that the idea was original with him (not too surprising for a genius, a printer and a rather irreverent man). But I'd be surprised if that trick would trip up anyone with the means to make microengravings at all.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  13.  

    Re:

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 20th, 2010 @ 11:12am

    maybe even if it is ineffective, it is an inside joke for anti-counterfeiting types.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  14.  

    Another possible reason...

    icon
    Pangolin (profile), Aug 20th, 2010 @ 11:26am

    The visa form examined IS counterfeit.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  15.  

    anyone else have a border crossing/green card and microscope?

    identicon
    jean/NOTCOT, Aug 20th, 2010 @ 11:31am

    after discovering adames while playing with the microscope, i'm more curious what is on the others, or newer versions... let's figure out if this is a consistent typo? or if someone else's name is a typo on others? :)

    we're all speculating about this, but there must be SO many more out there we can look at!

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  16.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 20th, 2010 @ 11:39am

    On the "anti-counterfeiting" side, Texas drivers licenses have things like that. A bit more discreet, like i's missing dots, or similar letters swapped. I still argue that a counterfeiter wouldn't go about fixing the mistakes he finds, but rather try to make an exact copy.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  17.  

    Re:

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 20th, 2010 @ 12:04pm

    For sure. Americans make no mistakes. If it's wrong, certainly it was done by someone else.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  18.  
    icon
    interval (profile), Aug 20th, 2010 @ 12:41pm

    I have a patent on micro-etchings of US Presidents and a copyright on spelling Adams with an 'e'. Expect the lawsuits...

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  19.  
    identicon
    Beau, Aug 20th, 2010 @ 12:45pm

    This is techdirt news?

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  20.  
    icon
    Terry Hart (profile), Aug 20th, 2010 @ 12:46pm

    According to this article, Greek passports do the same thing.
    "To the naked eye, the holograms will look like simple lines, but they are actually words and phrases written in tiny letters which, Samaras explains, are an additional security feature because they may contain anagrams or deliberate spelling mistakes known to the authorities but not to forgers."

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  21.  

    Re: Re:

    identicon
    MissingFrame, Aug 20th, 2010 @ 1:49pm

    ... or the Government, of course.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  22.  
    identicon
    Mik, Aug 20th, 2010 @ 3:36pm

    The Permanent Resident Card (Green Card) has similar features on the back with the presidents, I'll have to look under a microscope and see if the president's name are spelled correctly or not.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  23.  

    Different Typos

    identicon
    Fente, Aug 20th, 2010 @ 8:18pm

    It's possible different serial number sequences have different typos - though it doesn't make much sense why a typo ought be used when a different picture or other graphic detail coud be less obviously changed to ensure not only would a counterfitter have to copy imagery they'd have to know secret algorithms to match images to data.

    Much like currency matches secret hashes of numbers to details like dates of issue.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  24.  

    Ruined

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    Ben (profile), Aug 21st, 2010 @ 1:00am

    If the 'anti-counterfeiting' reason is true, then you've just wrecked it as the counterfeiters now know about the error, and can adjust their versions appropriately. And you've taught them to look out for such tricks if they hadn't spotted one before!

    Nice one, Mike ;)

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  25.  

    It's deliberate

    icon
    David (profile), Aug 21st, 2010 @ 1:30pm

    This is a standard anti-counterfeiting trick. Example: If you still have an old-style Visa credit card, take a look at the repeated word VISA in the micro-printing around the large Visa logo. There are two or three places where it's spelled VAIS (as I recall, there's one about three or four from the left in the third row). This was deliberate - I used to work for Visa, and there are other secrets about card design that I'm not going to divulge - the only reason I mention this one is because that design is now defunct. But, believe me, this is a routine form of fighting counterfeits.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  26.  

    USA Visa Typo

    identicon
    Moe, Aug 26th, 2010 @ 8:08am

    It's not a typo. I worked for the Feds for many years. We could detect if a Social Security card was fraudulent if the columns on the card exactly met at the top. Real cards had a gap on the top right. The same with alien resident cards; the word "immigration" on the back of the card had several "i's" missing the dot on top. If a card had all the i's dotted, it was a fraud.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  27.  

    Good One

    identicon
    Bryan, Aug 27th, 2010 @ 9:36am

    Good one, now you blew the planned fraud detection and everyone will be making fake cards with Adames on it!

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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