Protect your Business against Counterfeiting says Crime Prevention Products

Counterfeiting paper money was once a difficult and expensive endeavour, involving large printing presses and the expertise to cut intricate designs by hand into metal plates. These days, a teenager with a PC, scanner and colour inkjet printer can print cash in about 10 minutes. Governments are of course introducing more subtle changes to paper money so that counterfeits can be recognised, but on a busy day at a retail store it is often easy to miss a customer handing out fake money. For this reason, security providers such as Crime Prevention Products offer counterfeit detection products that are both simple to use and very affordable.

The cheapest counterfeit detection product on the market is the Money Pen, which checks the authenticity of bank notes via colour change to paper. Currently supplied to banks, Government Departments and hundreds of retailers in the UK, this type of product sells for as little as £1.30. By simply making a small, swift line on each note with the Money Pen, store owners can immediately see whether further inspection is necessary - if the note is genuine, the mark left by the pen will be light in colour but if the pen leaves a dark or black mark, there is a high probability that the note is a forgery. These pens have a shelf life of 12 months, providing sound value for money.

Terry Rattee, owner of Crime Prevention Products, says, 'Banks don't refund counterfeit cash, so it's the unfortunate store retailer who has to foot the bill for criminals. With counterfeit detection products like the Money Pen and Ultra Violet Lighting, retailers can keep themselves protected at a minimal price. Even a few fake £20 notes per week can add up, so this type of security measure is a simple way to prevent costly fraud.'

Mr Rattee goes on to explain that criminals target shops, pubs and clubs during their busy periods. The forger will wait in a queue and when reaching the front will tender a fake note to get as much change as possible. They rely on the staff being so busy that they're forced to rush to serve the influx of customers, thus preventing them from checking the money.

In addition to the Money Pen, UV pens and UV lamps are extremely effective in marking products or counterfeits for detection and recovery. If shop owners place UV markings on their goods or on suspected fake cash, the criminal will be none the wiser since UV is invisible to the naked eye, but the police can then recover the counterfeits or stolen goods with ease by shining a UV lamp on them.

As well as being used to check for signs of markings by UV pens on recovered goods, police forces and finance organisations throughout the world use and endorse the use of UV lamps to combat counterfeit detection. Through the use of UV fluorescent inks in currency production, it's possible to print bank notes with a mark that is difficult to accurately reproduce with colour copying and printing techniques. Thus, fake money can increasingly be detected by simply running it under a UV lamp.

With technology making the manufacture of fake money an easy option for criminals, it seems unfortunately evident that counterfeit detection is no longer a task for Government Agencies – it is becoming a concern for every shop owner.