Government tracks you with color laser printers

[Becca]

My bank gives me 5 bucks in Susan B. Anthony or Sacjuia(sp?) dollars every time I withdrew cash. I like to use 'em to pay my kids' allowence, cause they don't get stuck in the piggy bank like paper money does. Also, the penny is copper, but the silver-tone coins are nickle-plated alloy, with a few exceptions.

[Ming Yue]

I could make one that would mostly pass visual muster, but not tactile, and not with a magnifying glass. special paper and slightly raised ink require an engraving type printing press. There is microtype all over our money (type less than a 10th of a millimeter high) that is simply impossible to print with dry toner or inkjet printing - gotta be a metal plate.

more recently, our larger bills have plastic detection strips in them, and have irridescent highly raised ink, and random numbers scattered around - the boys and girls at the federal reserve are cracking down.

[Royal Dragon]

I could make one that would mostly pass visual muster,

Reply]
Then all you need is a teenager working the late night drive through and a hankering for small fries to convert a bogus $20.00 into a real $19.00 and a snack.

[Ming Yue]

$19 bucks, an unhealthy snack and a trip up the river.


I'd never survive in the hoosegow. I need the illusion of freedom I currently enjoy.

[Royal Dragon]

How would you get caught though? (Ok, Ok so I grew up in the capitol of the Chicago Mob scene, does it show??)

Think about it, a gazzillion cars go through a drive through every shift. VERY few of them have cameras, and even if they did, how would they know it was you that passed the phoney bill?

Even if they could place you at every drive through that got a phoney bill, the can't convict unless they can actually prove you passed it. The camera would show you passed "A" bill, but the authenticty of it still cannot be determined with current technology.

At best they'd get cercumstamntial evidence.

Most likely, you'd get away clean, especially if you hit all of the drive thrughs in one night. doing several hundred fake $20's

[Ming Yue]

They could certainly identify the paper and the type of ink, and the machine (or at least the type of machine) that printed it, from that info they could narrow it down to maybe 4 places in the metro area with the right equipment, and maybe all 4 use the same paper supplier....

last time I went through a drive through it was the pharmacy, and they swiped my $20 with a special pen to make sure it was on the right paper.


You go ahead though. Let us know how it turns out.

[IronFist]

Going to every drive-through in one night would be suspect, if it wasn't normal behavior. Also, fingerprints.

But if you go to the right drive throughs with the right apathetic people working there, you might not even have to pay at all.

"$3.00 please"
"Are you going to let the man tell you how much to charge? How much of that $3.00 will you see? What about all the food that doesn't get ordered at the end of the day. You're just going to toss it anyway. What's one burger and fries? Come on, help a guy out."
"Yeah, you're right. Here you go, no charge."

[Royal Dragon]

Wasn't aware you could fingerprint $$.

As for the paper suppliers, I bet any office max has something suiteable, theres only like a gazzillion of those around.

The girl I knew who did it used a common color photocopier seen in just about every office known to man. The bills she made would easily make it past a 16 year old at Wendy's late on a Saturday night.

I think the equipment is just to avaliable to get tied to it.