Deliberate spelling mistakes on new ID cards

24 May 2005

BRUSSELS – A new Belgian electronic identity card contains typos introduced deliberately to confound potential fraudsters, Belga reported on Tuesday.

Three circular arcs beneath the identity photos contain the name of the country in its three official languages – French, Dutch and German – as well as in English.

But instead of ‘Belgien’ in German, the ID cars incorrectly say ‘Belgine’ and instead of ‘Belgium’ in English, they say ‘Belguim’.

According to Luc Vanneste, of the government department in charge of issuing the cards, other errors will be printed on the card to further confound fraudsters.

A similar system has proved successful in the United States.

[Copyright Expatica]

Subject: Belgian News