Though counterfeit bills make up only a tiny fraction of the $1.27 trillion in circulation, law enforcement officials and federal prosecutors say they aggressively target money forgers to protect consumers and business owners and the larger U.S. economy. 
 
 Tarshema Brice hardly ranks among the world’s elite counterfeiters. But with the help of modern consumer technology, she developed an exacting system for crafting fake U.S. greenbacks. 
 
 First, the 34-year-old hairstylist and janitor took $5 bills with a specific watermark and soaked them with “Purple Power” degreaser. Next, she scrubbed off the ink with a toothbrush. After drying the now-blank notes with a hair dryer, she fed them through a Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) Co. 3-in-1 inkjet printer that emblazoned them with scanned images of $50 or $100 bills. 
 
 The counterfeits looked and felt real and could pass any rudimentary test by a retail clerk. Brice, who pleaded guilty to counterfeiting last month in federal court, admits she produced between $10,000 and $20,000 in fake bills over two years before her scam unraveled in September. The Richmond, Virginia, resident “was raising six children on her own with modest income and was filling the gaps by making counterfeit money,” says her lawyer, Charles E. James Jr., of Williams Mullen. 
 
 Brice’s scam is emblematic of a modern twist in a crime as old as money itself: digital technology has revolutionized the counterfeiting craft. Not long ago, producing good fakes was the province of artisans who etched printing plates and churned out millions in bogus bills on off-set presses. Today, all it takes is a scanner, a color printer and, for best results, some small bills and household cleaner. 
 
 Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg Though counterfeit bills make up only a tiny fraction of the $1.27 trillion in circulation, law enforcement officials and federal prosecutors say they aggressively target money forgers to protect consumers and business owners and the larger U.S. economy. Close Though counterfeit bills make up only a tiny fraction of the $1.27 trillion in... Read More Close Open Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg Though counterfeit bills make up only a tiny fraction of the $1.27 trillion in circulation, law enforcement officials and federal prosecutors say they aggressively target money forgers to protect consumers and business owners and the larger U.S. economy. 
 
 Presses Obsolete 
 
 “Back in the day, there was a significant outlay of funds to produce a counterfeit note,” said Ed Lowery, the agent in charge of the Secret Service’s criminal division. “You had to buy lots of quality paper, the ink, the printing press. You didn’t print up a thousand at a time, you printed up four or five million. You had a distribution network.” 
 
 Now, “why would you print up a couple of million in counterfeit? Depending on the technology you are using, you could just print up some to go out on a Friday night,” he said. 
 
 Statistics highlight the growth: In 1995, less than 1 percent of fake bills were produced on digital printers. In the last fiscal year, nearly 60 percent of the $88.7 million in counterfeit currency recovered in the U.S. was created using inkjet or laser printers, the Secret Service says. 
 
 Most of the digital counterfeiters produced a few hundred or thousand in fake bills, the Secret Service said. Others were more industrious. Last month, a 37-year-old self-taught graphic artist was sentenced to 12 years in prison for leading a counterfeiting ring that manufactured $1.4 million in fake $50s and $100s. 
 
 Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg A snazzy $100 -- the most commonly counterfeited bill, according to the Secret Service -- entered circulation in October after a delay of nearly 2 1/2 years due to production problems. The new $100 includes two new security features: a blue 3-D security ribbon and a color-changing bell in an inkwell. Close A snazzy $100 -- the most commonly counterfeited bill, according to the Secret Service... Read More Close Open Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg A snazzy $100 -- the most commonly counterfeited bill, according to the Secret Service -- entered circulation in October after a delay of nearly 2 1/2 years due to production problems. The new $100 includes two new security features: a blue 3-D security ribbon and a color-changing bell in an inkwell. 
 
 Counterfeiting Mills 
 
 Overseas, it remains a different story. Most of the fake $68.2 million in U.S. currency recovered last fiscal year was churned out by offset presses, the Secret Service says, because these highly efficient “counterfeiting mills” can more easily escape detection by U.S. authorities and even operate with the backing of corrupt governments. 
 
 Though counterfeit bills make up only a tiny fraction of the $1.27 trillion in circulation, law enforcement officials and federal prosecutors say they aggressively target money forgers to protect consumers and business owners and the larger U.S. economy. Last fiscal year, ending Sept. 30, the Secret Service made 3,617 counterfeiting arrests. 
 
 Treasury’s Response 
 
 The U.S. Treasury has also responded to the technological threat. In the mid-1990s, it introduced the first major redesign of U.S. bills in six decades. Testifying before Congress in 2010, Larry R. Felix, the director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, said the design changes were needed “to combat the emergence of a new category of counterfeiters who were increasingly using computers, scanners, color copiers and other emerging technologies to replicate notes.” 
 
 Redesigned $20s, $50s, $10s, and $5s were introduced between 2003 and 2008. A snazzy $100 -- the most commonly counterfeited bill, according to the Secret Service -- entered circulation in October after a delay of nearly 2 1/2 years due to production problems. The new $100 includes two new security features: a blue 3-D security ribbon and a color-changing bell in an inkwell. Those features are “intended to thwart increased counterfeiting of currency using digital reproductive technology,” Felix testified. 
 
 A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Darlene Anderson, didn’t respond to two phone messages seeking more information about her agency’s countermeasures. 
 
 Building Roadblocks 
 
 Manufacturers of printers and scanners, working with central banks and law enforcement officials worldwide, have also taken steps to fight counterfeiters, creating software that can detect and block the scanning of bills. 
 
 “HP works with law enforcement, industry, central banks and government agencies around the world to reduce the risk of counterfeiting activities,” said Michael Thacker, director of media relations for HP, the computer hardware company based in Palo Alto, California. He declined to be more specific: “Due to potential security risks, HP is obligated to keep the details of its activities confidential.” 
 
 Catching counterfeiters who circumvent those safeguards requires the same skills as agents who target drug dealers and gang leaders, the Secret Service says. 
 
 Bleached Bill 
 
 Brice was identified early last year after she was caught by a Maryland police officer with a bleached counterfeit $50 bill in her possession. Within days, a Secret Service agent was showing Brice’s driver’s license photo to a manager of a Virginia clothing store where $300 in fake bills had just been spent. The manager didn’t hesitate: “Oh, that’s her,” she said, according to court papers. 
 
 In September, Brice and three others were arrested; the three accomplices have pleaded guilty or been convicted of counterfeiting-related charges. 
 
 The Secret Service unraveled a much larger counterfeiting scheme in the months after a convicted armed robber was caught in 2012 trying to use 10 fake $100 bills to buy a Dell laptop at a Brandsmart Store in West Palm Beach. 
 
 The suspect became an informant for the Secret Service and led agents to his supplier. Agents convinced that man to cooperate, and he went undercover, purchasing $10,000 in fake bills -- some still damp from the printer -- in January from Jean P. Losier, a 39-year-old artist and painter in Palm Beach County, Florida, according to charging papers. 
 
 Losier, who has pleaded not guilty, describes himself on his website as “mega artist” of “elite paintings and drawings.” 
 
 Federal prosecutors and agents say Losier was indeed a “mega” artist: They allege he produced more than $4 million in fake bills. 
 
 To contact the reporter on this story: Del Quentin Wilber in Washington at dwilber@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editors responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at skomarow1@bloomberg.net Joe Sobczyk, Laurie Asseo 

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– A Hewlett-Packard 3-in-1 inkjet printer was essentially all it took for a working mom in Virginia to become a counterfeiter. Bloomberg takes a look at the case of Tarshema Brice, a 34-year-old hairstylist and janitor in Richmond who pleaded guilty last month to creating as much as $20,000 in phony bills over a two-year span. She "was raising six children on her own with modest income and was filling the gaps by making counterfeit money," specifically $50 and $100 bills, says her lawyer. She's also "emblematic" of something much larger, per Bloomberg: how easy digital technology has made it to churn out fake bills. You used to need a printing press; but in just 20 years, the percentage of such bills made on digital or laser printers and recovered by the feds has swelled from 1% to almost 60%. The secret to Brice’s success was that she started with real currency—watermarked $5 bills. But from there, her tools were pretty ordinary ones. She used Purple Power degreaser, heated the bills in a microwave, got the ink off with a toothbrush, then ran the paper through her printer, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported in December. The results of Brice’s work fooled local merchants and their counterfeit detection pens, although the watermark of Lincoln was incorrect for the larger bills. She was caught by police with a fake bill last year and arrested along with three accomplices in September. As for the modest size of their scheme, an agent notes that technology has stripped away the need to create fake millions. "Depending on the technology you are using, you could just print up some [money] to go out on a Friday night."