Counterfeit U.S. Cash Floods Crime Forums

&gt;&#x27;MrMouse says his single-ply bills do not have magnetic ink, and so they won’t pass machines designed to look for the presence of this feature.&#x27;<p>Clever tip for detecting counterfeits, found in comments:<p>&gt;&#x27;A good strong, neodynmium cylindrical magnet stuck to the side of something is a great way to check US currency. Just hold a bill by the corner and dangle it close to the magnet. The bill will show a slight, but very observable attraction. Easy and fast.&#x27;

Note that Krebs hasn&#x27;t verified that any orders have been received (fake &quot;reviews&quot; in underground forums are very common). Lots of people have claimed to sell fake currency in these marketplaces and are almost always a scam. This looks like one too.

My question was &quot;is buying counterfeit money but not using it a crime&quot;. According to this, it&#x27;s not:<p><a href="http://www.secretservice.gov/money_law.shtml" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.secretservice.gov&#x2F;money_law.shtml</a><p>&quot;Possession of counterfeit United States obligations with fraudulent intent is a violation&quot;<p>Specifically, at least on that page, it would not appear to be a crime to buy counterfeit money as long as a) you didn&#x27;t use it and b) you didn&#x27;t try to sell it.

I lived in Ecuador for 5 months, which uses the US Dollar.<p>A couple of local guys that worked for me had a lot of fun testing my abilities to detect fake bills, which are plentiful in Ecuador. Even when they gave me two bills and told me one was real and one was fake, I couldn&#x27;t discern any difference after 5 months of them showing me all the tricks of the trade.<p>The copies are extremely good, and I suspect not many people in the US are going to spend the time to check if a $10 or $20 is fake.

Related..I thought maybe you could claim it as prop money for the movies but no dice.<p>&quot;As it turns out, the Feds have strict laws about the production of fake currency. According to the Counterfeit Detection Act of 1992, a reproduced bill must be: a.) either less than 75% or more than 150% the size of a real bill, b.) one-sided, and c.) made with only one color (so as to discourage the reproduction of identifying factors). &quot;<p><a href="http://priceonomics.com/the-business-of-fake-hollywood-money/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;priceonomics.com&#x2F;the-business-of-fake-hollywood-money...</a>

This post reminded me of this. <a href="http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Diaries" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Hitler_Diaries</a><p>The Robert Harris account is excellent and there is a great quote from the forger along the lines of &quot;A document isn&#x27;t real or fake, it&#x27;s efficient of inefficient&quot;. I highly recommend reading the book.

The primary question: How the hell do you get this to your door? If I was to order it to a physical box, I face major felony charges as the government has a website to hack, and I am not confident in some random dude&#x27;s ability to secure his website with every known security hole patched.

A lot of this concern would be removed if the US switched to polymer notes. Visiting the US last year I was surprised to see people immediately suspicious of $50 notes that I gave them. I&#x27;ve never seen that happen in Australia, even with $100 note.

It&#x27;s funny that no one is checking serial numbers. Nowadays it would not be too hard to look up in a database if the number was issued, is in use elsewhere, or belongs to a destroyed note.<p>Privacy, cost and protocol issues left as an exercise.

Do all bills have magnetic ink?<p>I cannot seem to find a list.