U.S. officials troubled by fake currency flowing from Peru — latimes.com

The LA Times wrote an interesting article earlier this month about the high-volume of counterfeit US currency being created and distributed out of Peru.  You can read the article here:  U.S. officials troubled by fake currency flowing from Peru — latimes.com Posted using ShareThis

The U.S. Secret Service has an interesting press release in which they discuss a bust earlier this year.   http://www.secretservice.gov/press/GPA04-09_Peru-CFT.pdf   Interesting pictures of the equipment they used and the plates.

In discussions with our friends at the Secret Service, we have learned that these advanced notes are nearly undetectable by the naked eye, and that the “currency detector pens” are unable to detect these Peruvian “super notes”.

However, the Peruvian counterfeits do not have a fluorescent UV feature.  While the counterfeit notes DO have a security “strip” with accurate micro-printing, the strip does not fluoresce under long-wave UV light.

Our experience has shown that counterfeit notes almost NEVER have a fluorescent feature. When they do, they are typically not accurate.

 

California Registered Warrants (IOU) Have UV Features

As a lifelong resident of the Great Golden State, it has been very difficult to watch the annual fiasco of our  state budget process.  This year is truly dismaying, as the state has been forced to issue IOU’s to vendors and others to whom money is owed

 

Washed $5 Notes Reach Epidemic Levels in U.S.

One of the most clear-to-follow currency counterfeiting trends in recent years is the widespread growth in the reproduction of fake $100 notes on top of washed $5 bills. As the leading supplier of point-of-sale counterfeit detection products in the United States, I have  seen this problem grow to epidemic proportions during 2008 and into 2009. 

 

Credit Card Skimming

According to the U.S. Secret Service, card   skimming is one of the fastest-growing financial crimes.  Card skimming is a common method now used by thieves to steal identification, credit card or debit card data.  According to recent research conducted by Unisys Corporation, nearly 75% of Americans believe the recession has increased their chances of becoming victims of identity theft and having criminal hackers and thieves obtain and use their credit or debit card data.

 

Return Receipt Fraud Continues to Plague Retailers

In the fall of 2008, the National Retail Federation (NRF) released results of their third annual “Return Fraud Survey” .  There were some very interesting facts to be learned from this survey:

” According to the survey, return fraud continues to plague the industry and will cost retailers an estimated $3.54 billion this holiday season, down slightly from $3.6 billion last year. (Retailers will lose $11.8 billion to return fraud in 2008.) However, retailers seem to be tackling the problem, as return fraud is expected to decrease to 7.5 percent of holiday returns from 8.9 percent last year.

 

More counterfeit money changing hands

The amount of counterfeit money being accepted by consumers and stores in the USA is climbing as crooks are increasingly using inexpensive home computers and printers to produce phony money.

Increased Counterfeit Activity

The most recent data available, relating to fiscal year 2006, shows that about $62 million in fake currency was circulated in the United States. That represents a more than 10% increase from the prior year and a 69% rise from just three years earlier, according to the latest data from the Secret Service.

 

Restricted Sales – Alcohol, Tobacco … Cough Syrup?

For many of our customers, it is fairly common knowledge that Fraud-Fighter^TM equipment can be used to help verify identity when conducting age-restricted sales transactions. If you want to learn more about this topic, please read the article in this blog titled “VERIFYING IDENTIFICATION DOCUMENTS“, and call us at 800-883-8822.

It was quite a revelation to us here at UVeritech when we learned of the prevalence of the use of fake ID’s for the purchase of cough syrup. Of course, the news has been full of stories for several years about how cough syrup is one of the primary sources of a key-ingredient in the production of methamphetamine, a highly-addictive drug and a U.S. FDA controlled substance.

 

Verifying Identification Documents

U.S. Passport under UV

The threat of digital counterfeiting and forgery of identity documents is growing at an increasing rate. In the past, only skilled professionals with very sophisticated equipment created counterfeit or altered passports, driver licenses, national ID cards, and financial instruments. Today, however, the counterfeiting threat for a wide array of documents has moved from the professional to the casual counterfeiter. Because sophisticated counterfeiting tools, such as scanners, card printers, and image editing software are readily available at ever decreasing prices, identity document attacks by both criminal and casual counterfeiters are a growing threat.

 

Counterfeit Postal Money Orders

Should you accept a money order as payment for goods sold online? How do you know if it’s real? Identifying counterfeit money orders is easy if you know what to look for.

Postal Money-Order Under UV Light

Online fraud artists have been using counterfeit and worthless checks for years. Lately there has been a surge in schemes involving sophisticated counterfeiting of a different form of payment: United States postal money orders. The quality of what these con artists are producing is very good and ordinary consumers can easily be fooled. This scam is not only found at the on-line auction sites such as eBay or Craigslist but through email solicitations also.