US Bills Get Bleached

Updated: Sunday, 05 Dec 2010, 9:49 AM EST

Published : Sunday, 05 Dec 2010, 9:49 AM EST

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpps/news/money-laundering-takes-new-turn-dpgonc-km-20101205_10946118

(NewsCore) - It is the ultimate in money laundering -- bleaching the ink off $5 bills and reprinting them as $100s.

Damond Gallagher, a Brooklyn, NY, store owner, was suspicious of one of the bills handed to him by a young girl who came into his gift shop with a friend, the New York Post reported late Saturday.

Each tried to buy a small item with a $100 bill. But the money looked wrong to him -- the printing appeared soft. However, when he ran a counterfeit-detection pen over them, they passed.

"The pen is used to detect iodine or starch," said Todd Madison of the US Secret Service, so it will not catch the bleached notes created as part of an insidious and little-known counterfeit scam being played all over the city.

The crooks take a $5 bill, chemically strip off the ink and print a $100 bill on top of it -- with just a computer, a laser printer and a little know-how. Bleached $5 bills turned into $100s look worn, like they have gone through the wash. But by holding up one of them up to the light, it is possible to see Lincoln's face staring back from the watermark, and the embedded security thread will also say "USA FIVE."

On average, 600 bleached notes a month get handed in to the New York field office of the Secret Service. Agents there were also running a public awareness push to get the word out about the funny money amid the holiday shopping season.