September 2001 Topics
Blind Justice, Digital Dupes,
P-notes, Micas, Qualified Denial,
Street Taxes, and Trumped-up Charges
 

Forty percent of seized counterfeit currency
is made with desktop printers
in the home or office.
 

Fraud In Other Words: Professional Jargon and Uncensored Street Slang
By Larry C. Adams, CFE, CPA, CIA, CISA
 

Blind Justice
Themis was a Greek goddess of justice, an oracle at Delphi, and an adviser to Zeus. Statues depicted her eyes covered with a blindfold, so she could not see bribes being offered to her. She carried a sword in one hand and a balance scale in the other. Themis symbolized fair and equal administration of the law, without corruption, avarice, prejudice, or favor. The Egyptians carried the blind justice idea even further. They conducted their trials in darkened chambers, so the witnesses, the pleader, and the prisoner could not be seen by the judges. The Egyptians believed this would result in an impartial decision with no misplaced sympathy.
Jordan Almond, Dictionary of Word Origins: A History of the Words, Expressions, and Clichés We Use, Citadel Press, New York, 1995, p. 37.
 

Digital Dupes (P-notes)
Counterfeit currency made by using even the most basic personal computer equipment. Digital counterfeiters scan images of bills into memory and churn out the fake currency on desktop printers in their home or office. Secret Service statistics show that only 1 percent of fake notes seized in 1996 by federal agents came from quick, cheap and easy digital methods. An overwhelming 40 percent of the bills seized in 1999 were digital dupes and 3,466 people were arrested. About 17 percent of the point-and-click crime artists were teenagers. Prior to digital advances, counterfeiting was a time-consuming, expensive, and elaborate process. It needed a master engraver and printer, using offset typesetting, metal plates, ink, and special paper.
Los Angeles Times, “New Bills Battle Digital Dupes,” Arizona Republic, May 24, 2000, p. A19.
 

Micas
A Spanish word for laminated documents or plasticized cards. Micas is the common word for pasaportes locales or Border Crossing Cards (BCC) issued by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Six million micas allow Mexican citizens to enter the United States for up to 72 hours to visit within 25 miles of the border (65 miles in Arizona). There are over 100 million legal border crossings each year by business people, tourists, and shoppers from Mexico. During five decades, the INS issued cards in 15 formats without expiration dates. The paper cards could be easily duplicated or altered. Many micas bear childhood photos of now middle-aged Mexicans. Old photos on the cards make it difficult to compare the cards with bearer‘s faces, a situation that criminals have used to advantage. Law enforcement raids of border towns seized hundreds of micas that were rented out for illegal crossings. “Laser Visas” are being issued by the State Department’s embassies and consulates to replace the old cards. The fraud-resistant laser visas use holograms, micro-printing, and an optical memory stripe to digitally store new photographs, fingerprints, signatures, biometric information, and other personal details. The laser-etched information cannot be erased or altered. Laser visas will be valid for 10 years. Many Mexicans resent having to replace their old micas and pay a $65 fee for laser visas.
Sam Dillon, The New York Times, “U.S. Hopes New Laser Visas Improve Border Control,” April 05, 1998, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/nation-world/
html98/altcard_040598.html, May 09, 2001.
Mica photo: http://mexico.usembassy.gov/smxvisitar.html.
Laser visa photo: http://www.lasercard.com/app/
laservisa.htm, July 14, 2004.
 

Qualified Denial
To deny an event specifically. A dishonest person is more likely to make a denial using qualifying phrases like “To the best of my memory,” and “As far as I recall.” A dishonest person may qualify a denial using specifics like “No, I did not steal $10,000 from Company X on April 15th.” An honest person often denies an event with a clear and simple “No.”
Jack C. Robertson, Fraud Examination for Managers and Auditors, 1997 edition, Viesca Books, Austin, Texas, 1997, p. 164.
 

Street Taxes
Extortion fees or turf commissions that gang members collect from vendors selling fraudulent documents. The street tax is the price paid for working in a gang’s neighborhood. A gang offers their area to the highest bidder. The street tax can range from $500 a week up to two-thirds of each sale. Reluctant vendors are threatened or beaten into submission. One street gang in Huntington Park, southeast of Los Angeles, collects $40,000 a week by extorting document sellers. The gangs and vendors exploit a huge market of illegal immigrants who need counterfeit Social Security cards, residency documents known as “green cards,” driver licenses, birth certificates, employment authorizations, car titles, and insurance cards. Fakes are difficult to distinguish from genuine documents because there are more than 10,000 variations of U.S. birth certificates, 100 types of driver licenses and state identification cards, and 49 valid versions of Social Security cards. Fake documents are easily sold by travel agencies, small businesses, open-air markets, and street corner hawkers. Groups of men, known as “misqueros,” flash hand signals in the shape of a “C” indicating they have counterfeit documents to sell to motorists and pedestrians.
Gary Marx and Teresa Puente, “Latin Kings Find New Trade,” Chicago Tribune, September 18, 1999, http://www.americanpatrol.com/GANGS/
phonygreengardsgang990918.html, May 09, 2001.
Photo: Jack Kurtz/The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com/news/specials/migrants/
0826docfraud.html, August 26, 2001.
 

Trumped-up Charges
Groundless accusations that are fabricated, usually by a law enforcement agency. Something deliberately invented, usually to incriminate somebody wrongly. The intent may be to smear the person’s reputation, to prolong their legal battles, or to divert attention. The phrase is based on the Medieval French verb tromper, meaning “to deceive.”
Robert Hendrickson, QPB Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1997, p. 682.
 

ã Copyright 2001 Larry C. Adams.
All rights reserved.
 

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