Beware bogus US bill

Forensic expert and document examiner at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, Glenn Parmassar.


As law enforcement authorities continue to grapple with white-collar crime, fraudsters have turned to importing large quantities of bogus US currency to pass on to the unsuspecting public. Forensic expert and document examiner at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, Glenn Parmassar, said it appeared that because of increased measures in making the local and foreign currency “safe or genuine” fraudsters were left with little choice but to import bogus bills. “Counterfeiting of currency is a major activity engaged by the underworld which is always widespread,” he said. “Since we are so close to South America, we are actually subjected to imported US counterfeits coming in from South America,” Parmassar said. Describing this as disturbing, Parmassar added that despite the substantial number of security features incorporated in the US and T&T dollar bills, fraudsters always discovered ways at outsmarting the system. “The foreign US bills are imported mainly from countries like Colombia and Venezuela and they are passed on to the average society,” he said. “Although T&T has a very secure note, counterfeiters will always try to duplicate these items.” According to Parmassar, false bills were usually “passed on” late at nights because less attention is likely to be paid.
He said while counterfeiting had always been rampant, at Christmas and Carnival in particular, there was always an increase in the illegal activity. He said tools used by fraudsters included desktop publishing. “A lot of it also comes from taking the genuine notes, scanning and reprinting...Other techniques would be the traditional printing processors,” Parmassar said. As the criminal elements become bolder, Parmassar voiced concern about what he described as a very poor conviction rate. “The conviction rate needs to be improved,” he said. “With the advent of technology, it has made access to the ammeter more accessible and even those with criminal inclination need the basic tools to engage in fraud. “Like counterfeit bills, the reproduction of identification cards is simple to the ordinary fraudster. “In earlier times, to make a good fake document, access to a printing press, also called an offset printing process, was needed,” he said. “With scanners and copiers, fraudsters can actually take those simple items, scan them and reproduce them to get a reasonably good quality fake document. And once they look reasonably well done, the population at large could be taken in,” Parmassar said.

Corruption at the public level, including banking institutions, however, needed to be urgently clamped down, Parmassar added. “Companies more and more are getting individuals trained in forensic accounting,” he said. “Personnel at this level of training could actually look through a particular accounting system and see in what areas the organisation can be compromised through fraud and either put systems in place to prevent or lower it.” Among the anti-fraud mechanisms he identified were training in fraud auditing and financial fraud detection. “Within the business environment, fraudulent transfer of properties remains prevalent through wills or deeds that are fraudulent,” Parmassar said. “The other one is asset misappropriation classification where money is embezzled from companies.” The third category, he said, which remains difficult to quantify are corruption activities, including misappropriation of state funds.