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Counterfeiting With High Resolution Inkjets
Makarand writes "Thanks to the availability of low cost high quality inkjet printers, crooks
are now able to
produce currency indistinguishable from the real
banknotes, at least under dim lighting conditions like that in a bar or a nightclub.
The term "digifeiters" is being coined for counterfeiters that use
cheap high-resolution printers to produce fake currency. Unlike costly color xerographic copiers that come inbuilt with features
to detect security details on banknotes and stop currency copying, no cheap printers
come with such feature. An anti-digifeiting system for cheaper printers may consist of printer driver software capable of recognizing data patterns indicating currencies of several countries." I wonder what GimpPrint would think of being forced to print or not print certain documents based on their contents.
Go for plastic bank notes like australia. They work well... They even have clear patches you can see right through.
I mention this because this could be the next step for inkjets (if it hasn't been done already!) with all the privacy concerns that entails.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Actually, it's a common practice for a counterfreiting operation to 'launder' its money before putting it out into circulation. They will literally put it in a washer / dryer to give it that 'worn down' look and feel.
Last year, someone went into a convenience store in rural Michigan, and bought a candy bar. They paid for it with a $200 bill with George W Bush's face on it. The clerk gave the customer about $199.30 in change without a problem.
I think it was the manager who first raised the question about the validity of this bill later.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
which is why, here in the UK, we make higher denomination notes larger in size than those of a lesser denomination... I guess they didn't think of that in the USA.
Apparently 90% of US currency is outside of the US at any given time.
Sort of related: HP now offers invisible ink for inkjet printers viewable only under UV or IR light, intended to print stuff like tracking barcode on financial documents without customers noticing them (so shred all your junk mail, not just stuff with visible account numbers, since you don't know what might be printed invisibly on it). Maybe that's another way they can surreptitiously tag the output of color printers. Your printer specs say the inkjet print head has 48 dots? Have you ever actually counted them? Maybe they'll add an unannounced 49th dot that squirts invisible ink on the paper, and a tiny amount of invisible ink in a secret chamber of every cartridge. Yeah! That's the real reason the govt wants to extend the DMCA ban third-party inkjet refills, so they can keep tracing printer output back to its source! Tinfoil hat time... :)
Do they actually recognize that currency is being copied and prohibit the operation, or add watermark stuff like "void".
They copy the bills, but some do stuff to make the copied bills unusable, like make a perfect copy of a bill but make the entire page hot pink. The Ricoh printers we had at my last job did that. Other copiers make the copy, but insert a code number somewhere on the bill unbeknownst to the counterfeiter. When the bill makes its way to the Secret Service, they find the code, contact the company, and find out where that copier is located, which speeds up the investigation quite a bit. IIRC, a few years back they nailed some idiot Cornell students this way. Unfortunately I can't find the story on Google, and I don't quite remember where I heard it-- possibly from one of the Discovery Channel or History Channel documentaries concerning the U.S. Mint or the Secret Service or counterfeiting.
~Philly
For several months, I worked in a bank cash vault (Fifth Third Bank, Toledo OH USA) and noted some things.
... but then again, in handling coin, I soon learned to listen to the distinctive sound of silver tinging against the cupro-nickel normal coinage in the sealed bags.
(There was one false alarm that turned out to be Eisenhower dollars.)
... I can only conclude that this is because that these are generally places where the lighting is more dim, lots of small transactions take place, and frankly, where the environment is busy and loud.
Counterfeit 20s (and some 10s) showed time and time again in their deposits.
(It was particularly amusing to contact the customer about the debit, since it seems some of them expect the bank to simply replace the bill with a real one.)
... of course, it was a washed out line and that more than anything told me it was counterfeit.
... bills go through a lot, and you can't just go by the hue.
I've seen bills that have been dyed ... light green, dark purple, things like that.
It happens.
Firstly, silver coinage is very much out there, even to the point that a handful of silver Kennedy half dollars can be found in a single deposit from a department store (there was even a Franklin half in one batch). Perhaps people just don't notice silver coinage even in high-volume retail
Secondly, fake twenty dollar (US$20) bills are being easily passed along in bars
It could also be that the criminal element that does the counterfeiting is native to the bar-going crowd.
I have inspected these fake 20s in some detail. I noted right off the bat the "obvious" difference: the overall hue of the bill is off just enough to be suspicious. It is a little darker, and either slightly more yellow, brown and even a tiny bit purple. So it is easy for me to believe that these bills can be passed off in a darker environment.
The texture of the bills was OK, surprisingly. It could be that the paper was run through a washing and/or brushing mechanism to more simulate the cloth-y feel of a real bill. As for the microprinting
P.S. A final note about hue
[You have a stable society when some nut guns down a schoolyard and the law doesn't change.]
I think that would make a great plot for a caper movie -- pulling off a big heist of real currency paper from Crane & Co.