Counterfeit euros

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lmviterbo
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Counterfeit euros

Post by lmviterbo »

I have just read a very interesting feature story on counterfeit euro banknotes (and realized it was published exactly one year ago). Its author is the journalist Fabio Tonacci and the story was published on a site named Le Inchieste, a spin-off of the Italian newspaper group Repubblica / L'Espresso, containing their feature stories ("inchieste", in Italian).

Here's the link to the article, as translated to English (by Sara Cecere):

Counterfeit euros, artists of Giugliano swindle Bankers and Policemen

And here's the original version, in Italian, with extra features, including photos and a 5-minute video:

LA ZECCA DELL'EURO FALSO

The article ends by comparing the amount of counterfeit euro banknotes withdrawn with the amount of genuine euro banknotes in circulation. In fact, every other article I've read on the subject (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) does the same kind of comparison, resulting in numbers on the same order of magnitude: one in around 200,000 banknotes is fake.

The problem is that we can't compare withdrawn with circulating notes. If we compare withdrawn fake with produced genuine, the number is in fact on the next level of magnitude: one in 10 thousand notes is fake! I know that not every produced note was put in circulation. But of course that stands also for fakes. Moreover, it's said by specialists (can't find the source off-hand atm) that there may be 4 to 5 times more fakes than those that are found.

Well, I have never spotted a fake banknote. I wonder who has already seen at least one, especially the heavy ebters and in particular the Italian ones (since Italy seems to be, according to the story mentioned above, where 60% of the counterfeit are made and 30 to 50% circulate).
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bhoeyb
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Re: Counterfeit euros

Post by bhoeyb »

In all those years, I've seen only 1 fake :note-50: in circulation. It was clearly a bad photocopy from a real note as the silver hologram was colored using a silver pen. Luckly, it was not my note :) .
I've never found a fake note again.
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philgelico
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Re: Counterfeit euros

Post by philgelico »

I've got two fake Banknotes. First one was in August 2002, in the early months of Euro, in Italy, it was a very "naive" :note-5: photocopy.
The second one was a :note-20: - actually a correct conterfeit if you have it alone - but when I compared it with a real :note-20: , numerous differences appeared.
Si tu veux voler avec les aigles, éloigne-toi des paons. (proverbe d'origine inconnue)
千里之行 始于足下, proverbe chinois
اتَّكَلْنا منه على خُصٍّ الاتحاد قوة, proverbe arabe
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philgelico
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Re: Counterfeit euros

Post by philgelico »

a new couterfeit :note-20:
an :flag-it: , Trichet...... but with J003 :lol: shortcode
and the EBT registration has been refused :wink:
Si tu veux voler avec les aigles, éloigne-toi des paons. (proverbe d'origine inconnue)
千里之行 始于足下, proverbe chinois
اتَّكَلْنا منه على خُصٍّ الاتحاد قوة, proverbe arabe
ספר המעשיות: כולל אגדות וסיפורים מתוך קובץ כ"י ישן, proverbe sanskrit
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philgelico
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Re: Counterfeit euros

Post by philgelico »

some news about counterfeit :note-20: , found in Reggio Emilia area, in northern Italy :
http://www.ilrestodelcarlino.it/reggio- ... e-1.371883" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Si tu veux voler avec les aigles, éloigne-toi des paons. (proverbe d'origine inconnue)
千里之行 始于足下, proverbe chinois
اتَّكَلْنا منه على خُصٍّ الاتحاد قوة, proverbe arabe
ספר המעשיות: כולל אגדות וסיפורים מתוך קובץ כ"י ישן, proverbe sanskrit
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giulcenc
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Re: Counterfeit euros

Post by giulcenc »

The newspaper says "2.764 banconote da 20 euro aventi lo stesso numero seriale" (2.764 20-euro-notes with the same serial number)!

Fakers are not professionals! :lol: :lol:
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philgelico
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Re: Counterfeit euros

Post by philgelico »

yes giulienc .... Two years ago i had one counterfeit :note-20: ..... :flag-fr: Shortcode (L) and :flag-es: longcode (V) :roll:
and two weeks ago, a beautiful counterfeit :note-100: ..... with longcode beginning with W !!! 8O 8O 8O :lol:
Si tu veux voler avec les aigles, éloigne-toi des paons. (proverbe d'origine inconnue)
千里之行 始于足下, proverbe chinois
اتَّكَلْنا منه على خُصٍّ الاتحاد قوة, proverbe arabe
ספר המעשיות: כולל אגדות וסיפורים מתוך קובץ כ"י ישן, proverbe sanskrit
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Re: Counterfeit euros

Post by Ewri »

philgelico wrote:a new couterfeit :note-20:
an :flag-it: , Trichet...... but with J003 :lol: shortcode
and the EBT registration has been refused :wink:

Does its serial number start with T555?
We have had a lot of them since 2009 to date. The last one I have seen was about 1 month ago.
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Re: Counterfeit euros

Post by ErGo »

Ewri wrote:
philgelico wrote:a new couterfeit :note-20:
an :flag-it: , Trichet...... but with J003 :lol: shortcode
and the EBT registration has been refused :wink:
Does its serial number start with T555?
We have had a lot of them since 2009 to date. The last one I have seen was about 1 month ago.
As :note-20: or as :note-10: ? The second one is normal...
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Post by ErGo »

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Re: Counterfeit euros

Post by beaweb »

In Berlin today:
Counterfeit :note-20: note: :flag-it: J003E2 :flag-ie: T55501929854
Bad work.
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lmviterbo
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Re: Counterfeit euros

Post by lmviterbo »

I have found an app called R€D, for both Android and iPhone, that claims to help you detect fake euros:
Android Identify Fake Money x Free R€D
iOSR€D - Real Euro Detector
Here's a puzzling part of its official description:
ONLINE CHECK
Last power of R€D it's to verify if the serial number of your banknote, it's in the police archive.
Just write the serial number of your banknote to know if it's in the Counterfeit Banknote Police Archive.
The author's name is Italian (Giorgio Sanfilippo), so I guess this will just check the Italian Criminal Police's own tool Ricerca Banconote contraffatte, which I also found now.

I know close to nothing about programming but I am afraid the author might be able to access individual serial numbers checked by the app's users (serial numbers that can be used for several purposes, including registering them on EBT…)
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lmviterbo
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Re: Counterfeit euros

Post by lmviterbo »

Haha, I know :) but I bet the Italian police has a much longer list. :wink:

And my concern with granting someone access to my serial numbers remains. If the app's author does indeed have access to the checked numbers, then they become in a way "public serials" too.
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Re: Counterfeit euros

Post by lucilius »

A few weeks ago I wanted to enter 2 20euro bills on the website, the website however gave me an "error" stating the codes were wrong.
So I figured they were fakes!

Or perhaps they were not?
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