Ahead of the faking game

THE ABILITY of counterfeiters to easily conduct their trade in the comfort of their homes and on personal computers worth only a few hundred dollars and who are able to churn out bills that are extremely difficult to trace is enough to make the Central Bank uneasy. At a fraud seminar last week at Central Bank, Tim Jones, regional manager, De la Rue Currency Caribbean,   said the bank has been “on top of the game” in countering modern trends in counterfeiting. This form of criminal activity is relatively low in TT, he said.

Jones certainly knows his stuff since De la Rue has worked with TT in the design and printing of banknotes for almost 100 years. Counterfeiting, analysts say, was once the domain of skilled crooks who needed expensive engraving and printing equipment. However with the fall in prices of desktop publishing systems, counterfeiting has now gone mainstream. “Personal computers with the graphics needed for counterfeiting are now available for a few hundred dollars. While an Apple laser printer that produced 300 dots per inch (DPI) cost US$3,900, today such printers sell for less than US$500,” said one Web site on the topic.

A counterfeiter can easily purchase a colour ink jet printer — the fastest growing tool of choice for desktop counterfeiting for less than US$500. Counterfeiters have little to worry about because the technology they use to manufacture fraudulent banknotes leaves few tracks for the authorities to follow. However while Jones agreed that counterfeit currency can be easily done using equipment such as a home personal computer, scanner and printer, they can be detected. “You have to keep several steps ahead because counterfeiters will eventually learn how to do things,” he said in an interview after his presentation.

So far the authorities have been able to detect the counterfeiters. On May 28, 2002, police arrested a San Fernando businessman who was in possession of $107,000 in fraudulent banknotes. In a the same month, a San Fernando magistrate sentenced a man who attempted to use a counterfeit hundred-dollar bill to six months in jail. He received another six months for possession of a counterfeit hundred dollar bill. The same safeguards were also responsible in September 2004 for police in Tobago being able to alert the population of the sister isle about a flood of counterfeit hundred-dollar bills that were surfacing in Tobago around that time.

Jones explained that while forging higher value notes such as hundreds and 20s brought higher returns to counterfeiters, increased security measures on these banknotes have led to counterfeiters targetting smaller denominations, such as ten dollar notes, because they believe their security mechanisms are easier to breach. Counterfeiters may have to rethink that strategy as Jones explained that the wide range of security features incorporated into the 2002 banknotes such as improved security threads, iridescent prints, gold foil on the $20 bills and a multi-redundant hologram on the $100 denomination are making it increasingly difficult for counterfeiters to fake them.