By Meagan Simpson
Despite safer polymer bills cases of counterfeit arrests rose in Ottawa from 2012 to 2013, the latest year for which statistics are available.
According to an analysis of statistics collected from the Ottawa Police, the cases of reported counterfeiting went from 66 in 2012 up to 162 in the following year, an increase of 145 percent.
Wards across Ottawa experienced this trend even as the Bank of Canada was rolling out its new polymer bills from 2011 to 2013. (Click here for announcements of new bills: 100, 20, 5&10)
The wards experiencing the highest increase were Gloucester-Southgate which saw 600 percent increase and Somerset which saw a 500 percent increase.
Local expert and co-author of ‘Faking It: A History of Counterfeiting in Canada’, James Powell was surprised to hear that counterfeit currency rose in the city.
He says that the most likely cause of the increase comes from older, paper bills rather than polymers. He argued that they are much easier to counterfeit than the polymer notes.
Manuel Parreira, a senior regional representative for the Bank of Canada said the bank tries to keep bills secure by changing banknotes every seven to 10 years. Polymers were chosen for their safety the material makes it difficult to duplicate, he said.
“We were able to put a number of different things on the polymer; transparency, holography and other security elements,” said Parreira.
However, it is the transition period from paper to polymer bills that is attracting counterfeiters. They are using this time to take advantage of businesses in across Canada and Ottawa.
Erica Foster is an employee of a TD Canada Trust branch in Ottawa and has experienced the effects of counterfeiting. She found herself in possession of four $100 counterfeit bills earlier this year.
“We only noticed it once we compared it to a bunch of other bills. The four bills that were brought in looked identical to each other,” she said. A fellow employee only caught the counterfeits while counting cash in the back and noticed a discrepancy in size.
Parreira says that as the old paper series come out of circulation, they get targeted. “(The current) increase in counterfeiting is specifically of the paper notes,” he said.
The trend is country-wide. According to the RCMP’s statistics, the number of counterfeit bills passed went up in 2013 despite an eight-year decrease since 2004.
In 2004, crooks tried to pass more than 500,000 counterfeit bills, the highest in many years. It was those numbers that convinced the Bank of Canada to innovate its bank notes and influenced the introduction of polymer notes.
Despite the increased security, even new $100 polymer bills have been counterfeited. British Colombia had incidents last year of the fake bills being passed, the first time counterfeit polymers had been discovered in Canada.
According to Parreira using fake polymers is unusual, because they have numbered in the hundreds versus the tens of thousands of counterfeit paper notes from previous years.
Despite the recent spike Powell said, “As time goes by and all those 2004 and earlier series are withdrawn from circulation you’re not going to be left with a whole lot of counterfeits.”
The easiest way to decrease counterfeit bills Parreira argued is vigilance on the part of Canadians. “The key to stopping counterfeiting in Canada is not by making a note that has more security features but by making sure that the consumer uses the security features that are on there.”