More Counterfeit Money Changed Hands in 2006
Barbara Hagenbaugh
Terry Tilka says he sees fake bills about once a week at Rock Island Brewing, a restaurant/bar he owns in Rock Island, Ill., as well as at a dance club he owns. “It's been worse in the last three or four years than I have ever seen in my 33 years of business,” he says.
There has been a noticeable rise in counterfeiting in the past eight months in Pasco County, Fla., says Sgt. Bill Moltzan of the sheriff's office economic crimes unit there.
The crooks are bold. One person who was arrested charged people, including an undercover agent, for a counterfeiting how-to class. One man was arrested after dancers in a strip club realized he was passing out fake bills and called police while the bouncer held the man. A 62-year-old woman known as Grandma was caught this month trying to sell fake money at less than face value.
“Technology is making it easier for the people trying to do this on their own,” Moltzan says.
Despite the rise, the amount of fake money in circulation is a fraction of 1 percent of genuine currency, Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren says. The fact the money was caught suggests security features that have been added starting in 2003, such as colors and watermarks, make it easier to detect fakes, says Dennis Forgue, head of currency at Harlan J. Berk in Chicago.
The increase in currency caught should be seen “not necessarily as a sign of defeat, but as a sign of success,” he says.
But Zahren says the ease of using home computers to make the money has added challenges to catching counterfeiters.
About 54 percent of the counterfeit currency collected in fiscal 2006 was made using digital technology versus so-called offset printing, which involves more skill, time and expense. In 1996, only 1 percent of counterfeits were digitally produced, according to the Secret Service.
The government has been updating U.S. bills to try to thwart counterfeiters. In 2003, the $20 bill, the most frequently counterfeited currency in the nation, was the first to feature a color other than green.
Other features such as a watermark and color-shifting ink also were added.
Since then, new $10 bills and $50 bills have entered circulation. This year, a new $5 bill will be introduced.