Counterfeiting Countermeasures: Detecting Counterfeit Travelers Checks

One of the least sophisticated and most common counterfeiting crimes is that of counterfeit travelers checks.

And it is one of the easiest to spot.

If you were to assemble equipment at your work station to identify counterfeit travelers checks, you'd have a short list of things you would need.

First is a bright light. The sunlight coming through one of the windows in your office would do just fine.

The second would be a magnifying glass. The best we've seen is the kind used by stamp collectors. It's on a weighted base with a crook neck and runs about $35. You could also use the kind that comes with a Jr. Detective kit that is sold at the dollar store. It works just as well!

With just these two counterfeit identifiers, you should be able to discover whether or not the travelers check you are about to cash is genuine. Here's what to look for:
Watermarks
Hold the check up above eye level with a bright light in back of it. See that very distinct watermark? That's the most important security feature on the travelers check. The counterfeiter just can't duplicate that watermark. That image is created when wet paper fibers are placed on a drying screen during the production process. In order to reproduce the watermark, the counterfeiter would have to start with wet paper pulp, and a specially manufactured and designed drying screen. So far, no counterfeiter has gone that far!

Microprinting
With the magnifying glass, you can see the microprinting. That's printing that is so small that it is almost impossible to see or read using just your eyes. It appears on our currency around the portrait in the middle of the bill. That very fine printing just cannot be photocopied or reproduced by a desktop scanner. It comes out as a solid line.

For instance, look at an American Express travelers check. If you take a magnifying glass and look where the denomination "button" appears on the check, you'll see that microprinting appears in the background. On counterfeits, they will appear just as solid lines.

The most common travelers checks we see are American Express, Bank of America, Citicorp, MasterCard and Visa. There are some old Thomas Cook checks still in circulation, but Thomas Cook checks are now MasterCard. The methods of identifying counterfeit travelers checks are applicable to all of these. They all have security features such as watermarks, microprinting, MICR printing and intaglio printing. Some also have holograms, kennegrams, ultraviolet ink, special water-based ink and special numbering.The methods most commonly used to counterfeit travelers checks are by color copying (including scanning and reproducing on a color laser printer) or offset printing.

Offset printing is done with plates, using printer's ink. The ink soaks into the paper and the result check is flat and dull. There is no "life" to the copy. Currency and travelers checks are printed on Intaglio printing presses, using special ink. The process is extremely expensive. The plates have grooves actually etched in them that fill with ink, and then during the printing process, the special fiber content paper has the image from the steel plate forced on with over twenty tons of pressure. The result is the ink is layered into, on, and above the paper, giving some lines a "raised" feel. Offset printing cannot duplicate that "feel".

Color copying can. Especially if it's a copier that uses liquid toner. However, now there are not just certain lines that feel raised. The whole check does! And those microprinted lines? Forget them. They are now just a blur -a solid line. Liquid toner color copiers just can't do microprinting. Even the new powder toner copiers cannot reproduce the microprinted lines.

And none of these methods can reproduce the water mark.

Holograms - Kennegrams
When viewed from different angles, a hologram image will appear to move or "shimmer". They are produced by taking a 3-D photograph of an image with a laser camera. A kennegram image will change when viewed from different angles - for instance a portrait that faces to the left, and then appears to look to the right.

MICR
MICR is Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. Magnetic ink is used for the line on the bottom of the check so our high-speed equipment can read it. Some other areas of authentic travelers checks are also printed with magnetic ink. Laser scanned and printed checks will not be magnetically encoded unless the entire cartridge in the laser printer has been replaced with a magnetic ink cartridge. In which case the entire check may be created in magnetic ink. This ink has a slightly glossy look to it.

Ultraviolet Light (UV)
If you have access to an ultraviolet light, you'll note that there are areas that appear in fine line detail, and certain parts of the check will glow - such as the seal and the counter signature block.All the security measures the travelers check company can put on to a travelers check cannot begin to compare to the experienced teller who knows there is "something wrong" with this document. The counter signature was done right in front of you - and it perfectly matches the signature. And yet, when you looked really closely at the travelers check, you got that funny, gut feeling that something is just not quite right.

Trust your instinct! Now is the time to really examine the travelers check.

Go find a bright light and a magnifying glass!

Copyright © 1998 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 8, No. 4, 4/98