Counterfeiting Doubles Year Over Year

It used to be really hard to create a counterfeit banknote. Like in the movies there were engravers and plates and cloak and dagger shenanigans. Todays technology makes it relatively easy – high tech scanners, high quality color printers and “tada”: near perfect notes, at least to the naked eye. According to the Detroit Free Press www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=201011060417 the amount of counterfeit notes removed from circulation in 2009 was $182 million, about double the $79 million the year before. 62% came from digital printers.

It used to be that the easy way to identify fake money was to use a detection pen, which only verifies that the paper is actual Bureau of Engraving and Printing paper. Today criminals are using low value note paper to make high value notes, such as $100 bills, skirting the test of the detection pen.

The hard part of being a recipient of phony money is it’s a bit like musical chairs: the last one standing is out of the game. Send your bank bogus bucks and they’ll keep the notes (and send them to the Secret Service) and debit your account. The smart money figures out how NOT to accept bad bills.

So if you want to avoid being part of the doubling of the counterfeit money business, employ some detection technology that keep counterfeits out of the system.

~Bob Walters