Assessing the Practices of Online Counterfeit Currency Vendors

Where to buy counterfeit Money Online

Findings A Trusted Vendor

This analysis focused on the Open and Dark Web scenes of the market for
counterfeit currencies, as well as the offline scenes where possible given the
Holt et al. 9
comments made by vendors and customers (see also Holt & Lee, 2022a;
Hutchings & Holt, 2015). The observable scripts are the primary foci of this
analysis, along with potential scripts identified based on conditions arising in
the process of making purchases. The findings flow from the preconditions of
potential customers to initiation and entry processes of the market, followed
by vendor actualization and doing of completing transactions, ending with
the exit scripts of both parties in a given transaction. Though pseudonyms are
used for all participants and websites, participants’ direct quotes are provided
when possible, using the original spelling, grammar, and syntax of participant
posts (see also Holt, 2013; Holt & Lee, 2022b).

Preconditions for Purchase

Four of the vendors advertising counterfeit currencies gave subtle explanations as to why individuals would be interested in both purchasing and using
fraudulent money, focusing primarily on the benefits of acquiring counterfeit
currencies to benefit one’s financial state. For instance, Vendor 1 stated:
“Take the opportunity now to finally become wealthy a person in order to pay
up your tuition fees and still have some money to buy school stuffs, pay your
loans, hospital bills, utility bills and all your bills.” Similarly, Vendor 4 stated:
“you are just living your dream when you have plenty of money and cash in
your hand, due to which you enjoy your life to the fullest.” Relatedly, Vendor
6 posted a somewhat subtle message indicating why individuals should
acquire their services:
We solve your every need of cash and make sure you never need to go to a
capitalist bank for loans in your life. Our ultimate goal is to help the common
man with enough cash to run his daily activities. It is than they get and the
poor end up suffering. Have you ever seen a mother begging the streets just
to get a $20 bill to buy some bread for her kids? We don’t want this to ever
happen. . .so you have an urgent need for cash, know you are in the right
place.
Finally, several vendors noted where their currencies could be used, such as
Vendor 6, who wrote:
Where can you spend the money ?
Mc donald’s, shops, restaurants, supermarkets, petrol shops, game hall, atm,
banks,shopping malls, game and attraction parks, electronic shops, taxi, metro
and train station, used to pay bus and any transportation and can be
10 Crime & Delinquency

Production

Vendors provided varying degrees of information regarding the ways they
produced counterfeit currencies. For instance, Vendor 6 noted:
We are the best, unique and legit suppliers of high quality undetected Counterfeit
Money for many countries around the globe using ingredients such as cotton
fiber (80-99%) originally sourced from common white linen rag, wood fiber
(1-3%), titanium white (2-3.5% by weight of the total wood fiber ), polyamide
epichlorohydrin ( 0.5-2% by weight of the total cotton fiber ), aluminum
chloride, polyamide epichlorohydrin, melamine formaldehyde resin, animal
glue. . . They by pass the UV and the Iodine Pen test and thus they can be used
in stores,local banks, casinos, ATM and money changers.
Similarly, Vendor 4 stated:
every banknote that passes under their [the site operators’] hands has a unique
serial number which is engraved with close-to-real holograms. They possess
impressed and well-designed underlying substances for all types of currencies
available in different denominations. Our security features of banknotes include
Intaglio printing Watermarks thread see-through register special foil, special
foil elements Iridescent stripe and shifting colors.
Vendor 6 also highlighted the security features of their products, indicating
they used: “Intaglio printing, Watermarks, Security thread, See-through register, Special foil/special foil elements, Iridescent stripe / shifting colors.”
Additionally, Vendor 7 wrote: “Each time we produce a new note, it is always
tested in the country it is for. If everything goes well, we put it for sale.” Only
one vendor (Vendor 11) noted the downsides to their method of producing
counterfeit $20 bills, stating: “The infrared detector normally detect our
notes. (Sometimes not) We use 10 different serial numbers so some are
repeated (in each order).”
There was only one site that indicated they used a different process, which
may not be legitimate. Specifically, Vendor 8 stated:
This is 100% real USD Currency stolen from the FED before it could be
shredded. You have absolutely no Risk. Every year billions of dollars are
selected for disposal. No one tracks money that’s supposed to be destroyed.
The “[site operators’]” team has “access” to an almost limitless supply of cash
that is marked for disposal. We want to maintain access to our cash source and
don’t want to get caught so we offer Cash in exchange for Bitcoins. We mail
this cash to whatever address you wish in exchange for your bitcoins. We do
not accept any other form of payment.
Holt et al. 11

Product Pricing

A total of 17 currencies were offered within the sample of counterfeit currency vendors (see Table 3), comprised of mostly Western currencies such as
the U.S. Dollar (25.5%), Euro (23.9%), British Pound Sterling (11.1%),
Australian Dollar (10.7%), and Canadian Dollar (8.2%). Non-Western currencies were also advertised by vendors, consisting mostly of Middle Easternor Asian nations (see Table 3 for details).
The mean advertised price for all counterfeit currency products within the
sample (n=243) was $861.99 USD, with counterfeit U.S. Dollar products
averaging $953.11 USD. British Pound Sterling had the highest average listed
price at $1,580.20 USD, while counterfeit Canadian currency had the lowest
average listed price at $318.79 USD (see Table 3 for details). It is worth noting
that Middle Eastern and Asian currency products were frequently advertised
without a price in their product description. As a result, the mean advertised
price for many of these products/currency types were unattainable.
Table 3. Distribution of Currency Type (n=243).
Currency type N of advertisements Percentage
Average listed
price in USD
AED (Emirati Dirham) 1 0.4 —
AUD (Australian Dollar) 26 10.7 $504.36
CAD (Canadian Dollar) 20 8.2 $318.79
CHF (Swiss Franc) 5 2.1 $1,363.76
CNY (Chinese Yuan) 20 8.2 $358.62
DNR (Denarius) 1 0.4 —
EUR (Euro) 58 23.9 $970.58
GBP (British Pound Sterling) 27 11.1 $1,580.20
INR (Indian Rupee) 2 0.8 —
MYR (Malaysian Ringgit) 2 0.8 —
NZD (New Zealand Dollar) 2 0.8 —
QAR (Qatari Riyal) 1 0.4 —
SAR (Saudi Arabian Riyal) 1 0.4 —
THB (Thai Bhat) 2 0.8 —
TRY (Turkish Lira) 1 0.4 —
USD (United States Dollar) 62 25.5 $953.11
Unknown/unspecified 12 4.9 $345.83
Total 243 100 $861.99
Note. Not all product advertisements provided a cost price in their product description. As
a result, the mean advertised price in USD was unattainable for several products/currency
types.

Additionally, two vendors noted that their pricing was dependent on the
size of the order. For instance, Vendor 9 stated: “FOR ORDER OF FAKE
USD BANK NOTES OF 10000 USD-49000 USD (COMMISSION IS 10%)
ABOVE 50000 USD BULK ORDER OUR COMMISSION IS 5%.” Vendor
7 stated: “Price rate is usually at 10% the required amount (shipping and
handling fee included).” Similarly, Vendor 4 noted: “GENERALLY, WE
CHARGE 10% THE AMOUNT YOU ARE ORDERING. OUR MINIMUM
ORDER IS GENERALLY $5000 FOR $500.”

Purchase and Delivery

In order to engage in a purchase, vendors require customers to contact them
in some way. Open Web vendors tended to have multiple points of contact by
comparison to those advertising on the Dark Web. For instance, Vendor 4
stated: “Contact us to order any currency. To contact you can send us a message on live chat or Whatsapp” By contrast, Dark Web vendors preferred
some form of encrypted email (e.g., proton mail), such as Vendor 9, who
indicated to customers: “Send Your shipping ad[d]ress and order quantity in
Usd(minimum order 10,000 fake usd).”
Once the customer places their order, they would then send payment to the
vendor, which would formally initiate the transaction. Payments were primarily made using cryptocurrencies, though bitcoin was most frequently
used. For instance, Vendor 9 noted:
We accept payment by bitcoin manually. When we get your odrer confirmation
by mail, we will send you payment details by mail.After that you will make
payment
on our given bitcoin adress and also share with us Exact transcation id and all
transaction screenshot by mail. After verifying your payment status, we will
send courier to your given adress.
In much the same way, Vendor 7 wrote: “our method of delivery will be very
safe and secured (Home Delivery).The notes will be printed and ship over to
your provided location after you make the payment.” Vendors who accepted
other payment forms would specify their process, as with Vendor 4 who
stated:
OUR MOST PRIORITISED PAYMENT METHOD IS CRYPTO (BITCOINS,
BITCOIN CASH, AND OTHERS), BUT WE ACCEPT OTHER PAYMENT
METHODS IN VERY EXCEPTIONAL CASES (CASH APP, VENMO,
WESTERN UNION, MONEYGRAM).