Sunday, July 23, 2006

This week's column:
How to make money without really trying

It's a fact of life in this high-tech, dot.com world that you really need computer knowledge in order to make money. Otherwise you have to use green crayons, and most convenience store cashiers are trained to spot that.

I'm sure this is why a couple of teens in Plantation, Fla. last week used their home computers to create $2,000 in counterfeit bills, which they then passed to an undercover Secret Service agent. The agent was tipped off immediately by the fact that the ersatz fifties were slightly off in color from real bills, and also they had a picture of Britney Spears where Ulysses S. Grant should have been.

This was only the latest in a series of cases nationwide involving teen counterfeiters, including ones that led to arrests locally last year in Hamilton and Gloucester. In the Gloucester case, a 17-year-old tried to pass a $5 bill that was printed on only one side. This speaks to the main obstacle teens have encountered in trying to launch successful counterfeiting operations: They're morons.

For the rest of this week's AT LARGE by Peter Chianca, click here.

No comments: