Wesley Weber � Canada�s Master Counterfeiter
Wesley Weber who was one of the world�s most famous counterfeiters (forging millions of bank notes) is arguably the first image that comes to mind when counterfeiting is being discussed.
From the start, Wesley Weber�s goal was to live the good life�fast cars, beautiful women, lavish parties. But that took money, lots of it.
He tried financing his dreams with a series of petty thefts, growing marijuana, and forgery until he was busted in 1997 and spent three months in jail. Two years later his marijuana operation netted 18 months of house arrest and 240 hours of community service. Weber needed a better way to subsidize his ambitions.
Then it hit him. Why not print his own money?
Putting Technology to Work
Weber had always been a computer geek. As a kid, he�d tried duplicating Canadian 10s and 20s but decided doing it on a large scale wouldn�t be practical with the equipment he had. After several years of science and engineering classes, he thought it was worth another try.
He scanned and printed a $100 bill and studied where the copy fell short of being a convincing counterfeit. Real bills didn�t fluoresce under UV light. They had polymer dots and color-shifting security foil, too.
Weber began contacting paper, ink, and foil suppliers in Canada and the US until he found the components he thought would work. He even looked at a high-end copier but decided his off-the-shelf inkjet did a better job. All he needed was to bring the components together in a convincing replica of the Canadian $100 bill.
Testing the Waters
After a few months� experimenting, his friends convinced him the bills were ready to try. They passed them at several retailers without trouble. But when they reached banks, they were recognized as fakes. Fortunately, one of Weber�s friends worked at a bank and showed him a letter from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police�the Canadian version of the FBI�that described bills� flaws�and how to detect them. The bills started showing up taped to cash registers around his home base of Windsor, so Weber knew the cops were on the lookout.
Fortunately, they had also told him what he needed to fix.
Going Big-Time
Weber made the necessary alterations to his counterfeits, but he was concerned. He needed to make a fast killing and get out. He began selling the notes at a steep discount to a Middle Easterner in Windsor who resold them to a network of pushers. It worked so well that Weber told the Toronto Globe and Mail in a later interview that the buyer said a contact in the Iraqi embassy wanted to move Weber�s operation to one of Saddam Hussein�s palaces where the counterfeits would be used to destabilize Western currencies. In the same interview, Weber said he even taped half a million bogus dollars to a man flying to Iraq.
Living in Luxury
Things were going well for Weber. He had streamlined his operation to the point that four people could turn out $100,000 worth of top-quality counterfeits in 3� hours. Within little over a year, Weber had his fancy cars�including a Ferrari and a Mustang Cobra�lavish furnishings, snowmobiles, jet skis, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in real money he had accumulated at the rate of $8-12,000 a day. It was stashed everywhere in his condo�in a safe, on top of the refrigerator, even in the freezer. In the Globe and Mail interview, Weber told how a friend had opened the freezer to get an ice cream bar and $100,000 fell out.
The End Comes
Weber was relaxing at home with a friend on July 11, 2001, listening to printers churning out more bogus bills, when his patio doors burst off their hinges followed by cops with guns drawn. Turns out the Mounties had bugged the place with audio and video equipment and set up a command center in the adjoining condo to monitor Weber�s operation and gather evidence.
Weber was convicted of counterfeiting and sentence to 13 months in a Canadian prison.
Continuing Education Leads to a Career Change
Weber began serving his sentence in a maximum-security prison where he learned how to survive among hardened criminals. But since his crimes were white-collar, he was transferred to a medium-security facility where he had access to computers and television and the freedom to use them more or less as he wished. That led to his fascination with securities trading.
He began studying the subject and testing out mock trades. It worked so well he enlisted a surrogate on the outside to start trading for him for real, using the proceeds of the sale of his Cobra as seed money. It worked.
On his release in July 2006, Weber set up a financial consulting business without bothering with niceties such as registering and using real names. He was charged unlicensed trading, fraud, and misrepresentation in 2008 and again in 2010, along with public mischief and crimes related to growing marijuana. Busted on securities violations again in 2015, he was charged with violating his parole conditions in 2016. An internet search failed to discover the resolution of his latest misdeeds. It seems hard to keep a man like Weber down, though, doesn�t it?
Wesley Weber�s Legacy
Weber�s counterfeit 100s were so good that at one point merchants across Canada began refusing to accept c-notes. This led to the bill�s complete redesign in 2001, and additional features were added when the banknotes began converting to a polymer base in 2011. But Weber notes are still used by law enforcement agencies as teaching tools for counterfeit detection.
However, no matter the product existing in the marketplace, there is every chance that a fraudster is working hard to release a cloned version.
From the start, Wesley Weber�s goal was to live the good life�fast cars, beautiful women, lavish parties. But that took money, lots of it.
He tried financing his dreams with a series of petty thefts, growing marijuana, and forgery until he was busted in 1997 and spent three months in jail. Two years later his marijuana operation netted 18 months of house arrest and 240 hours of community service. Weber needed a better way to subsidize his ambitions.
Then it hit him. Why not print his own money?
Putting Technology to Work
Weber had always been a computer geek. As a kid, he�d tried duplicating Canadian 10s and 20s but decided doing it on a large scale wouldn�t be practical with the equipment he had. After several years of science and engineering classes, he thought it was worth another try.
He scanned and printed a $100 bill and studied where the copy fell short of being a convincing counterfeit. Real bills didn�t fluoresce under UV light. They had polymer dots and color-shifting security foil, too.
Weber began contacting paper, ink, and foil suppliers in Canada and the US until he found the components he thought would work. He even looked at a high-end copier but decided his off-the-shelf inkjet did a better job. All he needed was to bring the components together in a convincing replica of the Canadian $100 bill.
Testing the Waters
After a few months� experimenting, his friends convinced him the bills were ready to try. They passed them at several retailers without trouble. But when they reached banks, they were recognized as fakes. Fortunately, one of Weber�s friends worked at a bank and showed him a letter from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police�the Canadian version of the FBI�that described bills� flaws�and how to detect them. The bills started showing up taped to cash registers around his home base of Windsor, so Weber knew the cops were on the lookout.
Fortunately, they had also told him what he needed to fix.
Going Big-Time
Weber made the necessary alterations to his counterfeits, but he was concerned. He needed to make a fast killing and get out. He began selling the notes at a steep discount to a Middle Easterner in Windsor who resold them to a network of pushers. It worked so well that Weber told the Toronto Globe and Mail in a later interview that the buyer said a contact in the Iraqi embassy wanted to move Weber�s operation to one of Saddam Hussein�s palaces where the counterfeits would be used to destabilize Western currencies. In the same interview, Weber said he even taped half a million bogus dollars to a man flying to Iraq.
Living in Luxury
Things were going well for Weber. He had streamlined his operation to the point that four people could turn out $100,000 worth of top-quality counterfeits in 3� hours. Within little over a year, Weber had his fancy cars�including a Ferrari and a Mustang Cobra�lavish furnishings, snowmobiles, jet skis, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in real money he had accumulated at the rate of $8-12,000 a day. It was stashed everywhere in his condo�in a safe, on top of the refrigerator, even in the freezer. In the Globe and Mail interview, Weber told how a friend had opened the freezer to get an ice cream bar and $100,000 fell out.
The End Comes
Weber was relaxing at home with a friend on July 11, 2001, listening to printers churning out more bogus bills, when his patio doors burst off their hinges followed by cops with guns drawn. Turns out the Mounties had bugged the place with audio and video equipment and set up a command center in the adjoining condo to monitor Weber�s operation and gather evidence.
Weber was convicted of counterfeiting and sentence to 13 months in a Canadian prison.
Continuing Education Leads to a Career Change
Weber began serving his sentence in a maximum-security prison where he learned how to survive among hardened criminals. But since his crimes were white-collar, he was transferred to a medium-security facility where he had access to computers and television and the freedom to use them more or less as he wished. That led to his fascination with securities trading.
He began studying the subject and testing out mock trades. It worked so well he enlisted a surrogate on the outside to start trading for him for real, using the proceeds of the sale of his Cobra as seed money. It worked.
On his release in July 2006, Weber set up a financial consulting business without bothering with niceties such as registering and using real names. He was charged unlicensed trading, fraud, and misrepresentation in 2008 and again in 2010, along with public mischief and crimes related to growing marijuana. Busted on securities violations again in 2015, he was charged with violating his parole conditions in 2016. An internet search failed to discover the resolution of his latest misdeeds. It seems hard to keep a man like Weber down, though, doesn�t it?
Wesley Weber�s Legacy
Weber�s counterfeit 100s were so good that at one point merchants across Canada began refusing to accept c-notes. This led to the bill�s complete redesign in 2001, and additional features were added when the banknotes began converting to a polymer base in 2011. But Weber notes are still used by law enforcement agencies as teaching tools for counterfeit detection.
However, no matter the product existing in the marketplace, there is every chance that a fraudster is working hard to release a cloned version.
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