How fake notes continue to run despite all the improvement in currency technology…

Indian central bank warned against fake currencies being circulated by some players:

A notice issued by the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday highlighted the pitfalls of fake currency notes in circulation and warned the public of “unscrupulous elements putting into circulation fake currency notes of higher denominations.”

In recent weeks, there have been a number of instances of fraud in which third party agencies, hired by banks for cash management services were found to have introduced fake notes in ATMs so that they could make off with genuine currency notes picked up at bank branches.

In India, more than Rs 15,000 crore in cash is in circulation every day in the banking ATM network in India; of which Rs 5,000 crore is handled purely by third party agencies.

Multiple cases of fraud have been reported in metros like Hyderabad, Delhi and Chennai with average third party fraud running to Rs 80 lakh to Rs 4 crore per fraudulent incident. The most glaring case was when a cash recycler RCI in Hyderabad stole more than Rs 10 crore in June to pay the salaries of its employees.

One is not sure whether unscruplous is the right word here. It requires a lot of intelligence to circulate fake notes as original ones.

We had pointed to this community called Chapparbands which were expert coin forgers during British. They created a lot of headache for the British who controlled the currency and with it the economy as well. The British feared that they will lose control over their big monopoly.

In a way things are not very different today as well. With governments controlling the currency and much of it being fiat, it continues to invite people to play the forgery game. It was much more difficult earlier as one had to make the forged coins of some metal to look like the gold/silver coins. Now it is just paper and figuring out the  various security features ushered every now and then by the central bank/government. Just like the British feared then, the government fears losing control over the money and with it the economy.

It is really difficult to identify fake notes from real ones as some of them are that good. As technologies have leapt to make notes more secure, the same technologies have even gone reached the forgers. It is a game of cat and mouse between security enforcers and security breachers.

This game will continue as one gains significantly from just getting one fake lot in the market. It is after all to do with money. You might choose to rob a bank and get original notes or try and get fake notes in the market. Huge gains are to be made which is the game.

Not defending all this. But it is all about incentives which hugely attract forgers and will  continue to do so..