Is the Fake Name Generator illegal?

The simple answer is no, the Fake Name Generator is not illegal.

We do not condone, support, or encourage illegal activity of any kind. We will cooperate with law enforcement organizations to assist in the prosecution of anyone that misuses the information we provide or that asks us to provide illegal materials, such as forged documents or genuine credit card numbers.

All of the information we provide, including credit card numbers and national identification numbers, are fake. They can't be used to make purchases online or to obtain employment. We cannot and will not provide genuine credit card numbers or national identification numbers.

Can I use your identities in my book, on my website, in my movie, in my video game, etc?

Absolutely! Please be sure to review the license first. You are required to give attribution to the Fake Name Generator for any information you use from our website.

What can I use the Fake Name Generator identities for?

Thousands of individuals, companies, and government organizations have found useful and creative things to do with the Fake Name Generator. Here are a few examples:

• Quality test data can be hard to come by, especially with laws (such as HIPAA) preventing use of real data. Read more on the dangers of testing with real data.
• Many websites, such message boards, are poorly designed, making it difficult for visitors from foreign countries to sign up for accounts. Using fake information, you can easily fill out the sign up forms and log in to the site.
• Use fake information when filling out forms to avoid giving out personal information.
• Generate a false identity to use as your pseudonym on the internet. This allows you to keep your real life and your internet life separate.
• Get ideas for names to use for characters in a book or story.
• Generated credit cards can be used to test basic client-/server-side validation techniques without accidently processing a real card.
• Generated national identity numbers can be used to test basic client-/server-side validation techniques without risking disclosure of real information.

Where do these identities come from?

Name: Names are generated by randomly pulling a first and a last name out of a database. The database was compiled from public domain sources. Odds are that someone somewhere out of the billions of people who have lived on this planet has had the same name as the one generated. However, we assure you that these names are randomly generated.

Street address: The house number is a randomly generated number. The street name is pulled from a database of plausible street names for the state/country being generated. Odds are that the generated street address is not valid.

City, state, and postal code: We have compiled a database containing hundreds of thousands of valid city, state, and postal code combinations. One of these combinations is randomly pulled from the database for each identity.

Email address: The generated email address is in the format of Generated Name@Anonymous Email Service.com. The anonymous email services are provided free of charge by the Fake Mail Generator, our temporary email service.

Telephone number: We have compiled a database of valid area codes and prefixes. One of these combinations is randomly pulled from the database, and then a random number of the appropriate length is added to the end to make the phone number the correct length.

Mother's maiden name: A random name is pulled from our database of last names, and listed as the "mother's maiden name".

Birthday: The birthday is a randomly generated date.

Credit card: We use Graham King's PHP credit card generator. This script creates a fake, but syntax valid, credit card number. The expiration date is randomly generated to be a date in the near future. We use inactive prefixes to ensure that these cards are not used for fraud. These credit card numbers do not reflect anyone's real credit card number.

National identification number: Social security numbers are generated using the pattern outlined by the Social Security Administration. Social insurance numbers are generated using the pattern outlined on Wikipedia. These numbers are completely random, and are extremely unlikely to match the generated name.

Can I get a copy of the source code to your site?

No. We may eventually make it open-source, but currently it is a closed-source, copyrighted work.

Can you add a new feature, country, or nameset?

Probably. Use the contact us page to let us know what you want and we'll see what we can do.