US Now IN-Sourcing Counterfeiting of $100 Bills ;-)

By: EW News Desk Team   Date: 1 May 2010

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01 May 2010

The rise of digital money, where the wealth sits in charged ions along the strip of a bank card, has not meant the demise of the counterfeit bill.

According to one expert on counterfeits, through the late 1990s, Treasury Department officials estimated that about $20,000 in phony bills was passed in New York City each week.

The rise of digital money, where the wealth sits in charged ions along the strip of a bank card, has not meant the demise of the counterfeit bill.

According to one expert on counterfeits, through the late 1990s, Treasury Department officials estimated that about $20,000 in phony bills was passed in New York City each week.

Today, it is about $200,000 a week.

“The old way was that counterfeiters would bleach a $1 bill and doctor it to look like $100,”

said the expert, who has worked on currency issues for the federal government and for major banks and is not permitted by his employer to give interviews.

“Now you have computers, and you can print them.”

So thanks to cheap high-quality printers, counterfeiting appears to be one area of manufacturing where domestic sources are regaining ground that had been lost to foreign producers.

“For a while, there was a lot being done in Lebanon, also in Colombia and the Dominican Republic,” the expert said. “It’s being done locally now, too.”

Last week, the Treasury announced that it will issue new $100 bills that contain images of bells and the number 100 that move when the bill is shifted.

The point, of course, is to create new headaches for counterfeiters, according to this article in the New York Times.

Outside of the United States, the phony $100 bill is the most widely distributed piece of bogus American currency.

“It seems that there’s counterfeits floating around and no one is talking about it,” Mr. Walsh said.

Officially, there isn’t much to talk about.

“There has been no surge or anything to be alarmed about,” said Todd Madison, an agent in New York with the Secret Service, which is responsible for enforcing laws against counterfeiting.


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