Colombia, North Korea top suppliers of fake dollars: US

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2006

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Colombia and North Korea are top producers of counterfeit US banknotes, US authorities said in a report released here, which estimated that one in 12,400 US dollars in use worldwide is fake. But the joint report by the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve Board and US Secret Service on the use and counterfeiting of US currency abroad, issued here Wednesday, said that counterfeiting activity is low despite the widespread use of US currency.

"Out of the approximately 760 billion dollars in US banknotes in circulation by the end of 2005, the US Secret Service reported that about 61 million dollars in counterfeit currency was passed on the public worldwide, or about one dollar for every 12,400 in circulation," it said Thursday. The ratio was the same in the...