Make Money Fast

rrwood writes "This is an intriguing insight into the activities of a master Canadian counterfeiter. The subject of the article, Wesley Weber, is/was a distinguished hacker and cracker who used a combination of technological skills and social engineering to produce what is probably the highest-quality counterfeit currency ever detected in Canada. Even more interesting to note is the widescale effect this one guy had, since he and his confederates single-handedly managed to force businesses to stop accepting $100CDN bills, thus affecting literally millions of people. The story is a fascinating look at his brief career, and the dumb, shortsighted mistakes ultimately responsible for his downfall."

Comments

New bills

[g-to-the-o-to-the-g]

This is sorta irrelavent now, because recently the Canadian mint has come out with several new bills which are extremely difficult to counterfeit. THe new $20 bill came out last week I believe, and we've had new $100, $10 and $5 bills for ages now.

Re:New bills

[chewy_2000]

We changed our notes about a decade ago here in Australia, and as far as I know they are effectively impossible to counterfeit properly. Obviously a smaller economy/population that the US, but I don't recall any significant problem with the changeover. The new notes were introduced gradually, starting from the $5 up.
More details on the security features:
Here.

Re:New bills

[mindstrm]

Yes - they are pulling the old bills out of circulation.

Notice the MAIN problem with counterfitting in Canada, and it was mentioned repeatedly in the article, is that people simply did not usually check.. because we didn't have a real big problem with fake bills previously.

Second.. US currency, outside the US.
As someone who spends US currency and lives in central america.. you are correct, but for the wrong reasons.

People here do indeed know how to detect fake US currency; in fact, they are probably MORE aware of it than most people in the US. US bills are very closely examined here by everyone, and there are TONS of fakes out there. Every bar I know has sample fakes they've caught people with.

Further to that.. if you are passing a fake here, the cops won't be called unless you are literally trying to buy something big with entirely fake money. A merchant finding a note to be fake will say "This is fake" and probably give it back to you, if he feels in the mood. Even the banks; on depositing money into a bank, if they find one US bill to be fake, they'll tell you so, punch a hole in it, and let you keep it. They would actually have to suspect you of trying to scam them before they'll get the authorities involved.

The reason counterfeitting is a much bigger deal in latin america is because, to put it plainly, it's a lot easier to get away with.

Counterfeitting something that is not legal tender isn't all that big a deal.. you won't go to the federal pen unless you counterfeit the local currency.

Drug cartels counterfeit because the distribution methods needed to profit from it are identical to those used for drugs.. they are already in a position to move the stuff without any additional effort or risk.

US currency Legal Tender

[SuperBanana]

businesses to stop accepting $100CDN bills, thus affecting literally millions of people

I was under the impression that doing so at least in the US was illegal, until I actually (gasp!) googled it to make sure I was.

First link was to the US Treasury Department's FAQ on just that subject: Legal Tender Status.

I always thought it was illegal to refuse currency, but that nobody enforced it. Learn something every day. Honestly- it should be illegal for businesses to refuse currency; I don't care about the inconvenience of them having to change a $50 or $100 bill; if it's all I've got and I need gas, food, or lodging, well, they should have to accept it. It's very easy for it to be an issue of safety, and absurd to have money in your pocket in the industrialized world and not be able to use it. Nevermind that it should not be compulsory to use plastic.

Re:US currency Legal Tender

[failedlogic]

There's a problem with that too. Some bank machines give $50 bills when you widthdraw in $100 denominations.

The other day, for instance, I widthdrew $100. I needed to buy some clothes and food. The bank machine gave me two $50. All the banks were closed so I couldn't exhange for smaller currency then.

Plus, it was the last of my money until payday. I was lucky to find a retailer to accept them. I might have been screwed had they been fake. I know that possessing a fake is a criminal act, but had I had a "really" good fake from a bank machine that I didn't know about, legally I could have been in trouble too.

BTW -- Is a usually foolproof method of finding fakes to test to see if they have a raised surface in the assigned areas (from Intaglios)... or are most counterfitters able to reproduce that as well? It would seem this is the hardest and most costly to reproduce.

Re:$100 CN

[g-to-the-o-to-the-g]

For all the "har har i'm so funny lets bash canadians" comments out there, it should be noted that recently the Canadian dollar has actually been going up, rather then doing poorly like a certain someone's currency.

Re:YRO?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because people other than the government can take away your rights. If you were Canadian this guy would be making your dollar worth less, making you unable to spend your $100 bills, and making it more likely that you've been paid with phoney baloney.

I don't dare call it "stealing" because the "copyright violation is not theft" crowd will probably jump all over me. But whatever you want to call it, it's just as bad and it is a violation of your rights.

"affecting literally millions of people."

[Malc]

... seems like a bit of a sensational exageration. The $100 is hardly missed. I've only had a small handful over the years. Even $50s aren't that widespread. I see those a few times a month when I get larger quantities from the bank, but $20s are still the most common for even withdrawals of several hundred dollars. Maybe I bank in the wrong place.

Re:More important....

[JamesKPolk]

Learn the English langauge. His "confederates" were his partners in crime.

Re:More important....

[whorfin]

I don't know what's scarier, the person who posted this, or the people who modded it "Insightful". Confederates Defined Perhaps the poster is from Quebec?

Re:YRO?

[tylernt]

Cool idea. One might combine it with Massad Ayoob's technique. "...he always carries a $10 bill wrapped around a matchbook, and tosses that to the mugger first."

...oh, and sorry if the above link offends anyone. It was the only reference to Ayoob and his matchbook that I could find online.

Simple, time spend spending them

[SmallFurryCreature]

Say you got a big stack of 10.000 notes. Now you want to convert them to real money. There are a numbed of ways to do it but the simplest is either selling the stack to someone else for real money who will then spend the fake or spend the fakes yourselve.

The way to do it is to buy goods with fake money and get real goods and real change. You can then return or resale the goods for more real money.

So why not $1 dollar bills? What exactly would that buy you? 1 Mars bar? That would only work if you had a very low initial investment to counterfeit and were just using it to take care of living expenses. Just the small problem then that there would be a steady stream of counterfits near your house with your finger prints on it.

You can buy more expensive goods with $1 dollar bills but people get suspiscious when you pay for a new car with a pallet of cash.

Counterfit money is the balance between being low enough in value to be easily accepted and high enough in value to be worthwhile spending.

Re:US $100 bills aren't that hard to counterfeit.

[tk2x]

There's already an effort to do that, albeit not automated. Check out http://www.wheresgeorge.com/.

Re:Summary of article...

[orenmnero]

Well, according to the Bank of Canada, 36 billion was in circulation in 2001, and 19 cents per person in circulation was counterfeit. Canada has a population of about 32,000,000, so 32,000,000 * 0.19 =~ 6,000,000. 6,000,000 / 36,000,000,000 = 1.67e-4. 40% of this value was accounted for by $100 counterfeits.

Now, the bank says there are about 1.1 billion notes in circulation, or 35 per person. If there is one counterfiet bill per 290 people, that comes to 32,000,000 / 290 = 110,000 counterfiet bills in circulation. So again 110,000 / 1,100,000,000 = 0.0001, or 1 bill per 10,000.

Obviously these places run around distribution rings and some places will see a much higher frequency than others. And one currency, the $20, accounts for 50% of counterfeits. So in comparison, those will be relatively frequent, while the others will be much less so.

http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/review/summer04/ch an t.htm

So make C$500s, eh?

[billstewart]

The US no longer uses bills over $100 in general circulation, mainly because the Feds want to harass anybody engaged in cash businesses, like drug dealing and tax evasion, and force them into electronic banking systems where they're easier to detect. So a Canadian $500 bill is worth quite a bit more than a US $100 bill.

Re:I'm not worried, I don't use cash

[innocent_white_lamb]

This is not the same as a Visa or MC Debit card.. where Visa or MC is taking a chunk out of the merchant.

The merchant's bank takes a chunk out of the merchant instead. Usually 35 cents per Interac transaction. Visa/MC charge a percentage of the amount of the purchase, usually between 1% and 4%. Interac fees are usually a flat 35 cents, regardless of wheter you're purchasing an 80 cent chocolate or a $50,000 boat.