counterfeit

1. To make a copy of, usually with the intent to defraud; forge: counterfeits money.
2. To make a pretense of; feign: counterfeited interest in the story.

1. To carry on a deception; dissemble.
2. To make fraudulent copies of something valuable.

1. Made in imitation of what is genuine with the intent to defraud: a counterfeit dollar bill.
2. Simulated; feigned: a counterfeit illness.

[Middle English countrefeten, from contrefet, made in imitation, from Old French contrefait, past participle of contrefaire, to counterfeit : contre-, counter- + faire, to make (from Latin facere).]

For more information on counterfeiting, visit Britannica.com.

Security, currency, or bank card made to appear genuine, with the intention of defrauding an unsuspecting person. Counterfeiting U.S. Currency and bank cards is a felony under federal law, punishable by fines and prison terms. The U.S. Secret Service, a bureau of the Treasury Department, has responsibility for detecting and arresting counterfeiters.

verb

1. To make a fraudulent copy of: fake, falsify, forge. See true/false.
2. To take on or give a false appearance of: affect, assume, fake, feign, pretend, put on, sham, simulate. Idioms: make believe. See true/false.
3. To behave affectedly or insincerely or take on a false or misleading appearance of: act, dissemble, fake, feign, play-act, pose, pretend, put on, sham, simulate. See honest/dishonest, true/false.
4. To contrive and present as genuine: fake, feign, pretend, simulate. Idioms: make believe, put on an act. See true/false.

adjective

Fraudulently or deceptively imitative: bogus, fake, false, fraudulent, phony, sham, spurious, suppositious, supposititious. See true/false.

noun

A fraudulent imitation: fake, forgery, phony, sham. See true/false.

Definition: fake, simulated
Antonyms: genuine, real, true

n

Definition: fake, forgery
Antonyms: real thing, reality

v

Definition: make deceitful imitation
Antonyms: be honest

To counterfeit means to imitate with intent to defraud. Most counterfeit paper money can be classified in one of three categories: (1) notes that imitate legitimate notes; (2) alterations of legitimate notes, including notes raised from a lower to a higher denomination; and (3) spurious notes—that is, notes representing obligations of fictional institutions. Counterfeit notes of the period prior to the Civil War had to be distinguished not only from ordinary legal tender, but also from legitimate paper money circulating at a discount because it represented obligations of broken or failed banks. (Such notes were legal and worth whatever fraction of their face value the liquidated assets of the bank would permit.)

The circulation of both counterfeit notes and valid, but discounted, notes of commercial banks gave rise to the publication of pamphlets known as Bank Note Reporters and Counterfeit Detectors, published at any interval from semi weekly to annually by money brokers in centers of financial activity. These pamphlets gave up-to-date information on the validity and value of notes currently in use, and were used by any one who dealt in large amounts of nonlocal currency. After the effective end of state bank-note issues in 1867, the Bank Note Reporters became unnecessary because all bank-note and government-issued currency thenceforth circulated at par.

Counterfeiting is, of course, a crime, and for a long time many countries punished it with death. If, after a counterfeit note is passed the first time, it remains undetected, it becomes a part of the monetary system. At a time of full employment of resources it acts as a tax on the general public in favor of the counterfeiter. It raises prices By the percentage that the value of the counterfeit note bears to the total stock of money in the economy. If numbers of resources are unemploy ed, counterfeit notes have the effect of stimulating spending and, ultimately, reducing unemployment. Thus, at a time of less than full employment, the counterfeiter might be considered a public benefactor. Of course, counterfeit notes have never entered the monetary system in sufficient volume to make these general effects operable.

At least one case is recorded in which a responsible government legalized existing counterfeit issues—an action taken By the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. In an effort to spare the possibly innocent individual detected with a counterfeit note, the Confederate government legalized the acceptance of bogus notes late in the war. Indeed, the government had little choice. Because of the poor quality and multiplicity of issues of reputable Confederate notes, and also because of the masses of counterfeits in circulation—many originating in the North—hardly any one could tell the difference between real and fake money. Frequently the counterfeit notes were of better quality.

Counterfeiting in the twenty-first century is a minor part of total crime. The techniques, skills, and machinery required for effective counterfeiting are very costly and pay off well enough when used in legitimate enterprise with much less risk.

Bibliography

Benner, Judith. Fraudulent Finance: Counterfeiting and the Confederate States, 1861–1865. Hillsboro, Tex.: Hill Junior College Press, 1970.

Dillistin, William H. Bank Note Reporters and Counterfeit Detectors, 1826–1866. New York: American Numismatic Society, 1949.

Johnson, David R. Illegal Tender: Counterfeiting and the Secret Service in Nineteenth-Century America. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995.

—Richard H. Timberlake Jr./C. W.

To falsify, deceive, ordefraud. A copy or imitation of something that is intended to be taken as authentic and genuine in order to deceive another.

A counterfeit coin is one that may pass for a genuine coin and may include a lower denomination coin altered so that it may pass as a higher denomination coin.

For other uses, see Counterfeit (disambiguation).

Counterfeit products at a flea market.

A counterfeit is an imitation, usually one that is made with the intent of fraudulently passing it off as genuine. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the established worth of the imitated product. The word counterfeit frequently describes both the forgeries of currency and documents, as well as the imitations of clothing, software, pharmaceuticals, jeans, watches, electronics, and company logos and brands. In the case of goods it results in patent infringement or trademark infringement.

Counterfeiting of money is usually attacked aggressively by all governments. The ethics of counterfeiting goods on the other hand is looked at differently in different areas of the world.

Contents 1 Counterfeiting of money or government bonds 2 Counterfeiting of documents 3 Counterfeiting of consumer goods 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Counterfeiting of money or government bonds

This section requires expansion.

Main article: Counterfeit money

Counterfeit money is currency that is produced without the legal sanction of the state or government; counterfeit government bonds are public debt instruments produced without legal sanction with the intention of "cashing them in" for authentic currency, or using them as collateral to secure legitimate loans or lines of credit. Counterfeiting is universally regarded as a criminal act and has been known to be attempted in very large amounts (e.g. a recent attempt to smuggle approximately $135 Billion in U.S. Treasury bonds across an international border was discovered in Italy in June 2009).[1]

Counterfeiting of documents

Main article: Forgery

Forgery is the process of making or adapting documents with the intention to deceive. It is a form of fraud, and is often a key technique in the execution of identity theft. Uttering and publishing is a term in United States law for the forgery of non-official documents, such as a trucking company's time and weight logs.

Questioned document examination is a scientific process for investigating many aspects of various documents, and is often used to examine the provenance and verity of a suspected forgery. Security printing is a printing industry specialty, focused on creating documents which are difficult or impossible to forge.

Counterfeiting of consumer goods

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2009)

Main article: Counterfeit consumer goods

A Sharpie marker, next to a "Shoupie" marker.

The spread of counterfeit goods (commonly called "knockoffs") has become global in recent years and the range of goods subject to infringement has increased significantly. Apparel and accessories accounted for over 50 percent of the counterfeit goods seized by U.S Customs and Border Control. According to the study of Counterfeiting Intelligence Bureau (CIB) of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) counterfeit goods make up 5 to 7% of World Trade, however, these figures cannot be substantiated.^[1]. According to the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition if the knockoff economy were a business, it would be the world’s biggest.^[2] A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development indicates that up to US$200 Billion of international trade could have been in counterfeit and illegally-copied goods in 2005 ^[3] November 2009 the OECD has updated these estimates, concluding that the share of counterfeit and pirated goods in world trade is estimated to have increased from 1.85% in 2000 to 1.95% in 2007. That represents an increase to US$250 billion worldwide. ^[4]

Some see the rise in counterfeiting of goods as an inevitable product of globalization. As more and more companies, in an effort to increase profits, move manufacturing to the cheaper labor markets of the third world, areas with weaker labor laws or environmental regulations, they give the means of production to foreign workers. These new managers of production have little or no loyalty to the original corporation. They see that profits are being made by the global brand for doing little (other than advertising) and see the possibilities of removing the middle men (i.e. the parent corporation) and marketing directly to the consumer.

Certain consumer goods, especially very expensive or desirable brands or those which are easy to reproduce cheaply have become frequent and common targets of counterfeiting. The counterfeiters either attempt to deceive the consumer into thinking they are purchasing a legitimate item, or convince the consumer that they could deceive others with the imitation. An item which doesn't attempt to deceive, such as a copy of a DVD with missing or different cover art, is often called a "bootleg" or a "pirated copy" instead.

Most counterfeit goods are produced in China, making it the counterfeit capital of the world. Joining China is Korea and Taiwan. Some counterfeits are produced in the same factory that produces the original, authentic product, using the same materials. The factory owner, unbeknownst to the trademark owner, orders an intentional 'overrun'. Without the employment of anti-counterfeiting measures, identical manufacturing methods and materials make this type of counterfeit (and it is still a form of counterfeit, as its production and sale is unauthorized by the trademark owner) impossible to distinguish from the authentic article.

A federal crackdown on counterfeit imports is driving an increase in domestic output of fake merchandise, according to investigators and industry executives. Raids carried out in New York City resulted in the seizure of an estimated $200 million in counterfeit apparel bearing the logos of brands such as the North Face, Polo, Lacoste, Rocawear, Seven for all Mankind, and Fubu. One fo the largest seizures was a joint operation in Arizona, Texas, and California that seized seventy-seven containers of fake Nike Air Jordan shoes and a container of Abercrombie & Fitch clothing valued at $69.5 million. Another current method of attacking counterfeits is at the retail level. Fendi sued the Sam's Club division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., for selling fake Fendi bags and leather goods in five states. Sam's Club agreed to pay Fendi a confidential amount to settle the dispute and dismiss the action. Tiffany & Co. sued eBay, the world's largest online auction site, for allowing the sale of counterfeits, and Gucci filed suit against of thirty websites in the United States and is currently in the process of suing 100 more.⁴

To try to avoid this, companies may have the various parts of an item manufactured in independent factories and then limit the supply of certain distinguishing parts to the factory that performs the final assembly to the exact number required for the number of items to be assembled (or as near to that number as is practicable) and/or may require the factory to account for every part used and to return any unused, faulty, or damaged parts. To help distinguish the originals from the counterfeits, the copyright holder may also employ the use of serial numbers and/or holograms etc., which may be attached to the product in another factory still.

See also

Authentication Coin counterfeiting Counterfeit watch Slug (coin)

Entertainment Law Fake FBI File sharing Forgery Illegal stamps Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Intellectual property INTERPOL Philatelic fakes and forgeries Ripping Triad (underground societies) White Collar Crime

Counterfeit banknote detection pen Copyright infringement Tepito (Mexican centre for illegal copies and counterfeit) Placebo United States Secret Service

References

1. ^ ICC Counterfeiting Intelligence Bureau (1997), Countering Counterfeiting: A Guide to Protecting and Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights, United Kingdom.
2. ^ Welcome to KITSCHPURSES.COM
3. ^ "The Economic Effect of Counterfeiting and Piracy, Executive Summary" (PDF). OECD, Paris. 2007. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/13/12/38707619.pdf. Retrieved 2007. 
4. ^ "Magnitude of counterfeiting and piracy of tangible products – November 2009 update" (PDF). OECD, Paris. 2009. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/57/27/44088872.pdf. Retrieved 2010. 

• Detecting the Truth: Fakes, Forgeries and Trickery, a virtual museum exhibition at Library and Archives Canada

⁴The Dynamics of Fashion Third Edition; Fairchild Books, Inc. New York; Elaine Stone, professor emerita; fashion Institute of technology, New York

External links

• U.S. Secret Service article about how to detect counterfeit money.
• Bank of England guide to bank note security features.
• Approximately $135 Billion in counterfeit U.S. Treasury Bonds--Wow!

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - forfalsket, uægte, bedragerisk
n. - falskneri, efterligning
v. tr. - forfalske, efterligne, foregive, hykle, ligne
v. intr. - bedrage, piratkopiere

Nederlands (Dutch)
vervalsing, vervalst (geld/document), voorgewend, vervalsen

Français (French)
adj. - contrefait, fausse monnaie
n. - faux, contrefaçon
v. tr. - contrefaire
v. intr. - agir avec dissimulation, contrefaire

Deutsch (German)
v. - fälschen, vortäuschen
adj. - falsch, gefälscht
n. - Fälschung

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - πλαστογραφώ, παραχαράσσω
adj. - κίβδηλος, πλαστός, παραχαραγμένος, παραχαράσσω
n. - παραποίηση, πλαστογραφία, πλαστό έγγραφο, κίβδηλο νόμισμα, πλαστό χαρτονόμισμα

Italiano (Italian)
falsificare, contraffare, falso, contraffatto

Português (Portuguese)
v. - falsificar
adj. - falso
n. - falsificação (f)

Русский (Russian)
подделывать, фальшивый

Español (Spanish)
adj. - falsificado, simulado, fingido
n. - falsificación, simulacro
v. tr. - falsificar, simular, fingir
v. intr. - simularse, fingirse

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - efterapa, hyckla
adj. - efterapad, falsk, hycklad
n. - efterapning, förfalskning

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
假冒的, 假装的, 伪造物, 仿制品, 冒牌货, 骗子, 伪造, 酷似, 仿造, 假装, 伪装, 从事伪造活动

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 假冒的, 假裝的
n. - 偽造物, 仿製品, 冒牌貨, 騙子
v. tr. - 偽造, 酷似, 仿造, 假裝, 偽裝
v. intr. - 從事偽造活動, 假裝, 仿造

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 위조의, 가짜의, 사이비의
n. - 위조물건, 모조품, 위작
v. tr. - 위조하다, 모조하다, 가장하다
v. intr. - 위조품을 만들다

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 偽造の, 模造の, 偽の
n. - 偽造物, 模造品, 偽物
v. - 偽造する, 模造する, 酷似する

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) زيف, زور (صفه) مزيف, مزور (الاسم) (قطعه فنيه) مزيفه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮מזוייף‬
n. - ‮זיוף, חיקוי‬
v. tr. - ‮זייף, חיקה‬
v. intr. - ‮דמה מאד ל-‬

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