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| CANADA'S SOURCE FOR COMPUTER HUMOUR, PARODY, AND SATIRE
WASHINGTON, DC--The U.S. Treasury Department has its hands full with the latest counterfeiting scheme, graphical images of American currency being copied and passed off as real U.S. currency on computers and websites everywhere.
Showing up in the form of .gifs, .jpgs, and .bmps, counterfeit U.S. currency is being distributed by elite computer users, using sophisticated computer technology to reproduce graphical images Counterfeiters are using advanced techniques, such as ctrl-c, dragging and dropping, or right-clicking on images and using "save as" to copy pictures of American bills in great quantities. Then they e-mail these copies to pay for goods and services on the Internet The graphical currency is almost indistinguishable from legal tender. "You will need to use very sophisticated graphic viewing technology, such as Photoshop or ACDSee to detect possible counterfeits," says Treasury Agent Wade Brennan. "If you zoom in on the replicated images, you will be able to notice some artifacting around the edges of the images." "People are using these images to buy stuff on the Internet," stated Agent Brennan. Several online retailers have already encountered some the counterfeit images, including major e-tailer, Amazon. "There were several suspicious purchases made earlier this month," said Martha Kent, senior accounts manager. "One customer paid for his purchase with several file attachments of the '5-dollar.jpg'. I called the FBI immediately, as I had noticed the serial numbers were the same on each file." Peter Willis, of Modesto California, recently came across one of the counterfeit computer images in his e-mail client. "My buddy Duane sent me an attachment of the 20-dollarbill.gif , since he still owed me money from a bet," said Peter. "I noticed that the image was kinda blurry, and then I realized it was a fake." "I felt sorry for Duane, since he's now out the 20 bucks. He felt silly for not recognizing the graphic as a fake," added Peter. Duane said he received the phony image of the bill from a joke mailing list. The government is concerned that the availability of high-speed Internet will result in an increase of counterfeit currency images. The Treasury Department has already confiscated machinery from several suspected graphical counterfeiters, including several PCs and scanners. They found entire directories of counterfeit images on some hard drives. One machine had over one hundred copies of the file "tendollar.bmp". "These confiscated files will most likely be used in evidence pending investigation, and then they will most certainly be deleted," said Agent Brennan. Agent Brennan also admitted that his department is worried about international counterfeiting implications. "U.S. currency is the most widely targeted for international counterfeiters," said Brennan. "These fake images of American money could show up on computer screens anywhere in the world." The International Counterfeiting Deterrence Act has no precedent for counterfeit computer graphics of U.S. money, but they have scheduled an emergency session to iron out issues of currency losses, forgery, and new detection measures. The United States General Accounting Office (GAO) will also be investigating currency losses. The Program Against Digital Counterfeiting of Currency (ADC) had developed procedures against digital printing of American currency, but had nothing in place for the exchanging of counterfeit graphical images as tender. The Treasury
Department hasn't yet estimated the amount of counterfeit files in circulation
on the Internet, but suggests that you closely examine any monetary image
you receive.
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| This fictional story about counterfeit images is intended for adults. | The World Leader in Canadian humour, humor, parody, and satire. | |
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