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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."
Wonder how much 12.7 million is in REAL dollars ;)
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.
I believe the term you're looking for is *"Libertarian"
Matthew McClearn 2004-08-30
Making money
Counterfeiting is on the rise in Canada. And nobody did it better--or did more damage--than Wesley Weber, the man who crippled the $100 bill
...cont'd
The imperfections on every counterfeit bill constitute a sort of signature. Those flaws eventually result in their detection and removal from circulation, generally in one of four ways. Perceptive cashiers can notice flaws at point of sale and notify police; police also seize counterfeit during busts. At commercial banks, sorting equipment is designed to weed out counterfeit. "This stuff does not make it through the clearing houses," says Haywood. "It stops there. So it can't stay in circulation if it's in any kind of bank for very long." If it does get through, the Bank of Canada sometimes detects fakes among the damaged and soiled bills returned to them by financial institutions.
Counterfeit notes discovered in circulation often wind up at the RCMP's Bureau for Counterfeit and Document Examinations in Ottawa. Using microscopes and other instruments, RCMP investigators hunt for patterns in the flaws to determine whether large volumes of counterfeit originate from a single source. Large-scale counterfeiting operations cannot escape notice. And since surges in complaints tend to happen in relatively localized areas, police can often narrow down what region--even what city--a counterfeiting ring calls home.
The source of OSD-004 was hardly a mystery. Windsor Police and the RCMP formed a joint force operation and held a meeting to discuss the inundation of counterfeit in their jurisdictions. Among Windsor's population of just over 200,000 residents, there were only so many suspects. "All of us thought it was Weber," Bailey recalls.
Clever though Weber was at forgery, his compulsive criminal behaviour left him vulnerable. His own lawyer would later describe him as a "one-man crime wave." For one thing, the Chevrolet Tahoe he drove had been stolen by friends in October 2000. The very fact that he was behind the wheel was a problem, too: his licence had been revoked following his conviction on various dangerous driving offences. None of this had escaped the notice of police. "They could have taken him down at any time," says DiPietro.
Weber's recklessness in spending his own product was a big liability, too. His fingerprints were found on the imitation gift certificates he'd passed at the malls. He had also used five fake $100 notes to buy an ink-jet printer at Business Depot in London. At an auto parts supplier in the same city, another 21 fake bills bought him four rims for his Ford Mustang. That business's owner, who requested anonymity, says he noticed irregularities that night when he was readying the notes for deposit. They smelled like cologne and had an unusual texture. Closer inspection revealed that some of the notes shared serial numbers. The next day he contacted police; the employee who executed the transaction picked Weber out of a photo lineup. Weber was arrested on Oct. 23, 2000, and released six days later on bail.
Up to that point, Weber figures the ring had cashed $200,000 in counterfeit, but his arrest forced him to conclude that the strategy of self-distributing the fake bills was ill-conceived. He contacted an old acquaintance, whom he describes as a middle-aged man with both legitimate and illegitimate businesses. He showed this shadowy figure $1,000 of his product. "The next day, he made an order for $180,000," Weber says. "We sold it at 24 on the dollar. Three days later, he wanted another $100,000. And another $100,000 and another $100,000." Weber's ring scrambled to keep up with demand; they invested in technology and refined their processes. Output mushroomed, and as the purchases grew, market forces dictated that Weber--who, remember, was still under house arrest at the time--reduce his price.
Meanwhile, on the street, OSD-004 sold for as much as 70 on the dollar, Weber says. But he now wanted as many people between him and street p
It always cracks me up when I see Americans cracking Canadian currency jokes while the US dollar is worth something like 20% less (v the Euro) than it was 4 years ago. 1.20USD will get you a euro, 1.30CDN will get you a dollar.
I've always heard on AM radio what the right-wing wackos sound like. But, this is a first for me on the left. Let me guess, you heard this on the new democratic raido network?
Here's some advice, concentrate on finishing school and learning about the real world.
nohup rm -rf ~/. >& zen &