Is there a mechanic for improving the rating of a fake SIN? For example: Fake SIN's are limited to rating 4 at CharGen. Is there an easy way to "improve" that rating later on?

No. Since the Fake SIN is tied to information on various databases, finding them all and editing them is just as much work as creating a new Fake SIN.

However, if one of my players wanted to "upgrade" an existing Fake SIN (which is attached to a fake name as well), he can pay for a new Fake SIN and merely have it be the same fake name, with any of the previous licenses still attached to the "new" SIN.

None of my players would do that, it is FAR safer to change identities early and often! They will "burn" a SIN if they have the slightest suspicion that it might be the slightest bit of a risk, and accept the nuyen loss as cost of doing business.

That's not how it works to my mind. The impression I have is that the rating of a SIN (its strength) is more closely linked to the amount of corroboration from different sources, a la Web of Trust. I'd allow the improvement of a SIN through the assumed creation of more records with more institutions and more details add to only key existing records (e.g. the GSINR).

Thats still a lot of work, and requires skills and resources not many runners can muster...

Oh yeah, you still need the specialist expertise required to forge SINs and that goes beyond a few skill points. No, runners really shouldn't be able to do it themselves, it's a different career.

I'm with Aerospider.

And why not just have a runner pay the cost difference +10% of the new rating's full cost to have a fake SIN improved? Figure the 10% is the labor cost to have the people go back and add more data.

Aerospider: Well we can certainly agree on that.

SpellBinder: I'd allow it, but I'd charge more than 10%- maybe 20%. 10% just sounds too cheep to me. Also you risk the upgrade hack being detected and burning your fake SIN altogether.

Honestly I just threw out a number that would be easy math. I could also see upwards of 50% or more in case there was something like a crackdown on Fake SINs.

Yet, oddly, the guys who supply them can do it in a week!
(A little exaggeration, but not far from the truth).

That's cause they know all the ins and outs. Know how to work the system.
You have to try working in any organization with more than 10k employees to understand how true it is - you know the right people and the right moves, you get everything you want. You don't - you spend a year trying to get what you absolutely need.

Well i don't really think it is that much more difficult to forge SINs than it is to run a successful car theft/sales operation. In which case the runners, being very competent people, should be able to do it with a good Forgery skill, appropriate contacts and knowledge skills, and of course some kinda SIN manufacture shop. Some hacking skills might be necessary as well.

Since a SIN is worth even less than a car though, it's not gonna make the Runners terrible rich quickly. And if they only make them for their own purpose they're not gonna save that much nuyen anyway.

It's not nearly as easy, minding that we're talking changing multiple secure databases here.
And there are rules for forging SINs in Unwired - with the kind of intervals they have there, it's really much more profitable to just run and buy SINs.

Indeed it is...

Forging a Sin (Unwired p.95)
Threshold: Rating x32
Interval: 1 Week

Hacking Skills are an absolute Must as well

Keep the Faith

I figure the only real reason to hack a SIN yourself boils down to it being completely beyond anyone's knowledge except you, so your forger can't sell you out. So maybe something you work on and off on for a while in case you need to drop ALL your connections immediately and flee. I don't see common use fakes being something a PC would try to mess with given he could easily earn the several thousand needed to buy one with the kind of time it would involve for him to try to do it himself.

Yeah, I think it's assumed that the people making the fake SINs have special skills and contacts to make the process much faster, that and I find the extended test duration for many tasks in unwired to be way too long.

I personally don't let players upgrade SINs, part of a SINs rating is how well it's history meshes up with real life, and it would be really hard to edit in that history after the SIN has been used for awhile. It's like upgrading a car to a car of a newer model, sure with enough replacement parts it may be possible, but it's questionable if you'd save any money, and defiantly not worth it.

Just my two nuyen though.

I've always thought if you really wanted to tinker with SIN rules, it'd be better to come up with some way to let them upgrade in terms of "doesn't look fake" over time (since you build up a real data trail to supplement the false one) but by the same token you become easier to identify because there's more data. Not really sure how to set that up rule-wise; heck, not entirely sure how you apply a "SINner" disadvantage as a disadvantage really beyond the obvious "leave a ton of DNA/fingerprints/etc. around and they got you" (which you can't pull too often really if you want to stay fair; the thing's worth less than most allergies points-wise after all ).

Being paraplegic is worth less than a lot of allergies, too.

One thing I miss from 3rd edition is the system of edges and flaws for SINs. I'm thinking of coming up with a homebrew version that allows you to add positive or negative qualities by adding to the base value (i.e. a rating 3 fake SIN with one positive quality point makes the cost of a rating 4 fake SIN).

I remember reading a mission where the Johnson was a mafia don, and one of the forms of payment he offered was to use his connections to improve on a fake SIN. If it's something you want to allow, just do it.

SRM02-05 out of the Denver missions.