Frequently Asked Questions
Can I advertise on your site?
Yes! We allow text and banner ads via Google AdSense.
Isn't this 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.
That being said, we really don't see how it could be. If you make up a random name and address off the top of your head, do you really think its illegal?
How could anyone possibly find this useful?
There are a ton of uses for this service. 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. We can quickly and affordably generate test data to help you develop your application.
- 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. To prevent misuse, we do not generate birthdates that would make the individual a minor.
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.
What powers your site?
We are running on shared hosting at HostGator. We've been very satisfied with the service they provide and would recommend them to anyone looking for a stable web host with a responsive support team.
Our website is powered by PHP and MySQL.
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 <INSERT FEATURE HERE>?
Probably. Use the contact tab above to send me an email letting me know what you want and we'll see what we can do.
If you are looking for custom data generation, please e-mail us with your project requirements for a price quote.