Associated Press
By DAVID McHUGH
As banks and stores prepare for the launch of euro notes and coins on Jan. 1, counterfeiters likely are preparing to cash in, too, European officials warned Thursday.
For up to two months after the launch, cashiers and consumers will juggle national currencies and the new euros. In the confusion, officials worry that counterfeiters - both hardcore professionals and opportunistic amateurs - will try to take advantage.
``For amateur copies, the most dangerous period is during the dual circulation period,'' said Willy Bruggeman, deputy director of the police agency Europol and the head of its euro project. ``We expect that we will see some amateurs try to test the system.''
Amateur counterfeits - typically produced by a computer with a scanner and an inkjet printer - usually are so crude that a second look easily distinguishes them from the real thing, Bruggeman said. Small quantities of them already have turned up in attempts to con people into exchanging money ahead of time.
The longer-term threat comes from professionals, who use bulky offset printing presses that produce better fakes, Bruggeman said. They can't equal the print quality of the real money either, but their quantities are higher and they can come surprisingly close to duplicating security features such as watermarks.
In an attempt to stymie counterfeiters, euro bills will not be released ahead of Jan. 1. Starting Friday, banks will sell starter kits of coins to give people a chance to see what euros look like.
The coins may not be used until Jan. 1.
There are, however, many euro bills already circulating that counterfeiters can use as guides. The notes were distributed widely to banks and stores before the launch and several million euros were stolen in robberies in Germany and Italy.
Countries were allowed to use national figures on the coins.
The risk of counterfeit euros probably is higher outside the euro zone, such as in Eastern Europe, where there has been less of an attempt to educate cash handlers and the public ahead of time, officials said.
Authorities in Bulgaria, known to Interpol as a major counterfeiting center, are bracing for the emergence of fake euros.
In several raids this past year, police broke up three rings in the cities of Plovdiv, Ruse and Kazanlak. In Plovdiv alone, police seized $875,000 in counterfeit dollars and 50,000 bogus German marks - Europe's two favorite currencies to fake.
Vladimir Petrov, chief cashier at United Bulgarian Bank, said his employees managed to seize counterfeit marks this year as they passed through the bank, but their quality may give people an idea of what to expect when the ersatz euros begin to flow.
``Their hologram was placed exactly at the right spot,'' Petrov said. ``The marks we found also reacted normally to the ultraviolet light. The paper and the colors were of an exceptionally good quality.''
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