New research from cybersecurity firm cybersixgill has revealed that 2022 saw an increase of approximately 91% in deep and dark web market listings advertising counterfeit banknotes.

Despite last years Scottish Affairs Committee’s Access to Cash report, that showed that more than half (53%) of Scotland’s bank branches have closed since 2015 – the highest percentage loss out of the UK’s four nations – most businesses still accept cash leaving them vulnerable to the potential increased circulation of fake notes.

The research also revealed that during this time, the number of unique actors selling these fake bills increased by approximately 82%.

However, cybersixgill’s statistics reveal a market largely dominated by a small number of big players with the top 10% of sellers accounting for 80% of counterfeit note listings.

The increased supply and growth of counterfeit currency may result from the proliferation of advanced printing technology and techniques, which enable more actors to produce convincing counterfeits with less difficulty. For example, a man in the US was recently sentenced to prison after printing over $400K in fake bills in an at-home operation that used an inkjet printer.

The report goes on to detail these underground marketplaces’ feedback systems as a means to observe an increase of quality with regards to these notes.

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The report says: ‘An examination of the quantity of feedback given to these market listings implies that this currency is of higher quality: Despite the overall rise in fake money advertised on the underground, there was an approximately 53% decrease in feedback (replies) to these listings.

‘Suppose we assume customers are more likely to write feedback when dissatisfied with the transaction. In that case, the inverse relationship between posts advertising counterfeit money and feedback on these posts suggests that customers are increasingly satisfied with the product and the supplier.’

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