The University of Wisconsin-Madison has used donated funds to buy hand-held scanners that have been given to seven liquor stores and one grocery store to make it easier for their employees to spot fake IDs.

Usually, bars or clubs buy the devices or universities use them in their on-campus pubs, but it’s rare for a school to go that extra step by donating scanners to area businesses, said Charles Cagliostro, president of TokenWorks Inc., the Delaware-based company that sold the scanners to the university.

The recipients of the scanners have agreed to use the gadgets to swipe customers’ IDs to instantly determine the students’ ages or whether the IDs might be fake. The money for the scanners is from the UW Police Department and the chancellor’s office.

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