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Jul 31, 2006 9:03 am US/Central
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Secret Service Investigating Counterfeiting Scheme
Bills In Chicago Being Bleached And Reprinted As Higher Denominations
CHICAGO (AP) ―
A scheme has been hatched to pass off counterfeit money for goods and services, according to the U.S. Secret Service.
Lower denomination bills are being bleached then reprinted as notes of higher value, using off-the-shelf computer scanners and printers.
Secret Service officials say more and more of these bogus notes have shown up at their offices all over the country in recent months. The fakes now make up 90 percent of the $19,000 in counterfeit cash that the Secret Service's Chicago office receives each week.
They are sold on the street for 40 or 50 cents on the fake dollar, in a burgeoning black market, according to Xavier Morales, supervisor of the Secret Service's Chicago counterfeit squad, told the Chicago Tribune.
"It's not yet a national problem, but they figured it out here," Morales said.
A routine glance and a counterfeit 20-dollar bill looks like any other, with the face of Andrew Jackson staring at you. However, hold the bill to a light and a curious thing happens. A watermark in the bottom right corner bears the face of Abraham Lincoln, which is on five-dollar bills.
It is fairly easy with today's more powerful computer scanners and color printers to reproduce bills that look genuine at first glance fairly easily, according to authorities. They add it's still difficult to reproduce micro printing and the color-shifting ink seen on real U.S. notes.
But the fakes are printed on bleached bills, the finished product is on the real linen and cotton paper used by the Federal Reserve. The technique gives counterfeiters several advantages, including the fact that the paper feels legitimate, according to Morales.
Most counterfeit bills that wind up in the hands of Secret Service agents in Chicago are received from banks after being deposited by fast-food outlets or other small businesses.
Passers of the counterfeits have been known to mix the fake bills into cash used in drug payments, and they have been passed at restaurants, gas stations and other businesses across the area, according to authorities.
Some small time counterfeiters simply roll from restaurant to restaurant passing bad $20 or $50 bills.
"We've arrested people and found all kinds of fast food bags just thrown in the back of the car," Morales said.
Using actual currency paper renders the security pens used by cashiers to find bad bills ineffective. The pens are supposed to leave a brown mark when they react to the starch in real notes.
Secret Service officials say it will take public awareness to keep the bad bills out of circulation.
"Looking at the watermark only takes a few extra seconds," said Tim Viertel, special agent in charge in Chicago.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)