A Closer Look at the Laws around Counterfeiting Money

Manufacturing or using counterfeit money considered to be a violation of the United States Code and may be considered to be criminal fraud as well. This charge is made when an individual intentionally uses or creates counterfeit money in order to buy goods in the U.S. This crime may be punishable by a fine up to $15,000 or a prison term of up to 15 years in very significant cases.

International Fraud

In the United States, knowingly using or manufacturing counterfeit currency is a felony offense. It is taken quite seriously. This issue gets addressed at the federal level and the Secret Service is the one that handles it. In fact, this government agency was created originally for this exact purpose. If it is suspected that you are making phony money, then most likely the Secret Service will confiscate any equipment or materials that are believed to being used in the process, including scanners, printers, hard drives, computers, etc.

The reason why severe penalties may be imposed is because creating and distributing counterfeit money can have a very detrimental impact on the entire society. Real money can be devalued, and it can increase the prices of commodities or due to inflation. All of these consequences can potentially trickle down to all Americans, as well as people in other countries and are reasons it's important to detect forged bills.

Using Counterfeit Money Unintentionally

Even using counterfeit money unknowingly is still illegal. However, a court only charges an individual with fraud when it is proven that the person tried to consciously pass fake currency off as being real money.

It is very important that any counterfeit bill that happen to come into your possession be reported to your bank or the police. Otherwise the bill is kept in circulation and can have negative impacts like the ones we discussed above. You might end up losing the value of the money since you won't be returned the value when you deposit it into your bank or try to buy something with the counterfeit money.