Counterfeiting is on the increase. Companies ignore it at their peril

May 15th 2003 | Beijing, London and new York

THIS week, the American government unveiled a new $20 bill. Designed to stay one step ahead of counterfeiters, its most notable feature is its colour: the stately green and black of the old bills has been joined by sprightly peach and blue. Alone, this might pose little deterrent to America's digital forgers. Armed with PCs, scanners and laser printers, they account for roughly 40% of all counterfeit currency confiscated in America. Other features, however, will make copying far more difficult than it was: the new bill has enhanced security devices—including a watermark, security thread and special inks.

Thomas Ferguson, director of the Treasury's bureau of engraving and printing, says that keeping counterfeits at bay has as much to do with strict law enforcement and public co-operation as it does with high technology. In any case, it is a combination that seems to be working: fewer than 0.02% of all dollar bills turn out to be fake. Such quality control is something that other industries that are newly at the sharp end of the forgers' skill can only dream of.

To most people, counterfeiting means forged currency first and foremost. But counterfeiters are copying an ever widening range of products. For some time they have been churning out imitation designer fashion, software and CDs. Now they are copying medicines, mobile phones, food and drink, car parts and even tobacco.

New technology has broadened the range of goods that are vulnerable to copying. It has dramatically improved their quality, as well as lowering their cost of production. Where once counterfeits were cheap and shoddy imitations of the real thing, today their packaging and contents (especially for digital products such as software, music CDs and film DVDs) often render them almost indistinguishable from the genuine article.

Date: 2015-01-12; view: 2280