James Randi talks about the Secret Service

[thekaxmax]

if you are a provable telepath, contact Randi for your million bucks.

[MrFungus420]

Those pens give a positive result on most newspaper.

[download333]

I only found out how those pens work about a month ago while browsing Wikipedia and was surprised at how simple they are. Especially by the fact that you can easily get a false positive by rubbing your dinner roll on the bill before testing it.

[tenkins]

I've tried to explain to my work that these are bullshit but they laugh at me, idiots

[MarkRadioSoo]

There is a counterfeit called "raised note". Counterfeiters bleach the corners of a $5 bill and in its place write $100. In other words, a $100 with the portrait of Lincoln. Since most $100 notes are circulating overseas, many are tricked into accepting these raised notes that do not have Franklin's portrait on them. The pen could not detect this type of counterfeit.

[libertarianjury]

For an evil prank, spray your friends' money with starch. LOL

[libertarianjury]

For an evil prank, spray your friends' money with starch. LOL

[fedos]

Why use a stupid pen. There are much better counterfeit-detection methods built into real bills already. I see clerks use pens all the time on my twenties and wonder why they didn't just hold up to the light, which is faster anyway.

[k0smon]

Most clerks now look for the 'strip'. Also, counterfeiters now spray the phony bills with hair spray to keep the iodine from contacting the paper.

[gregvs3]

I asked a cashier about this, and she said she has indeed found phony money this way. Anecdotal of course. Perhaps others should ask cashiers and see if they hear the same thing.

Of course the federal government is the biggest counter fitting operation in the country.

[magnusalexa]

Randi is an illusionist &has created the illusion he cant find competent psychics or evidence of the supernatural cause the masses don't pay to attend his magic bollocks.His challenge isnt even scientific,for it to be the selection process has to allow a representative of every country, culture and belief system. I am scientifically proven as a telepath but not allowed to enter this challenge cause Ive got no money to pay Randi to attend.

hes a trickster who tampers with test results

[zzytrewq]

@magnusalexa - you are typical of the BS artists who criticise Randi because you aren't what you claim. Call him what you will.

The reason clowns like you don't succeed when tested is because he does testing scientifically. You can fool many folks but not Randi.

As for your allegation that he tampers with results proves you are nothing but hot air, and the reason no one believes you have the telepathy skills is obvious, you don't so stop kidding yourself.

[Slurfs]

Well if you are scientifically proven - show some test results to us. That should not be a problem should it ?

[ArrogantAtheism]

@magnusalexa Lol that is not what scientific means buddy, look if you really are a proven telepath you would have no trouble getting a small bit of media coverage, and scrounging up a bit of cash to travel for a little while.

[zerobeat18]

@magnusalexa You are not a "scientifically proven telepath". You aren't even a "friends are convinced I'm a telepath". And you don't have one iota of evidence that Randi is falsifying his claims. Instead of trying to prove yourself right, you (and people like you) are resorting to accusing the scientific method of being inherently biased against you. Science has proven plenty of utterly phenomenal things to be true, and would have no problem extolling telepathy as reality if proven.

[BortolanAlexandre]

@magnusalexa AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH

[freeman2545]

@magnusalexa ....oh man......you really believe what you are saying? 

[RS1963]

This is one thing that Randi is not even close to correct on. The pens to work. I have seen them show when a bill is not real and when it is not. Randi has never been wrong before but his time he is dead wrong.

[Artificerabbit2]

I just sniff the bills. Nothing smells like real money.

[Sclunger]

You realize, your sniffing all the farts, skin cells, and other crap that gets collected, right?

[CHASCHARLTON]

i have a one that works believe me !...BTW I'm in the UK

[Flyborg]

I wasn't going to believe you - but then you said "believe me" - so now I'm totally convinced!

[CHASCHARLTON]

yea well it dose work , i don't know maybe it has something to do with the paper used, but they do work here , yea "believe me "!

[jgoemat]

You can't say that it has "no value whatsoever". It sure wouldn't fool a professional counterfeiter, but wouldn't it detect someone that just tried to copy money in a regular color copier with regular copier paper? That's some value at least.

[70k0]

If the cashier couldn't detect that with only touching the bill they should never be hired.

Hell, a good amount of cashiers these days can barely count back change without the cash register telling them the amount, guess you can't expect them to spot major differences like that much less minor differences.

[MilesB1975]

I have no idea why America still uses paper money, It's almost impossible to counterfeit Australian Dollars since they are plastic and contain a transparent hologram.

Well I suppose the US dollar is worth less than the paper it's written on anyway, thanks to their Fractional Reserve system.

Suckers, they should know better.

[70k0]

While I agree to some since of this, I am slightly off from you saying the money is worth less after explaining australian currency...which is worth even less.

I do agree though that the technology is much better.

[BlueRonin44]

Actually the US Dollar is printed on linen, not paper. That's why it survives if you accidently drop it in the wash... and launder your money.

And I have investigated countless counterfiet cases and scams and Randi is correct. The pen is worthless. If your a business owner and want to try and convince yourself otherwise, go ahead.

[bobbytimberlake]

It's not fractional reserve that does that; every banking system in the world uses it.

It's the printing money (like for giant political payoff spending bill) that does it by diluting the currency. Of course, the purpose of that is a handout for everyone who spent himself into debt, and a punishment for everyone who's ever worked and saved.

[BipedalHumanoid]

errr... Ever heard of the Reserve Bank of Australia? Australia also has a fractional reserve system. so does Europe... so does New Zealand, So does the UK.

Did you honestly think Australia was still using the gold standard?

[franko2k]

Want a reliable way to detect counterfeits?

Rub the bill across a piece of plain white paper. Front or backside,either way will work. If the bill is good,it will leave a smudge on the paper no matter if it's been through the washing machine. If it's a bad bill,it will just "squeek" slighty. No smudge.

[luisdanielmesa]

well that's true about the patents, some guy in Australia got an INNOVATION patent on a device to AID in the "transportation of goods" comprised of a set of rods holding a rim at aproximately the same distance from another smaller circumference in it's center, and in the part of PREFERRED METHOD OF USE he wrote that a rubber coating be placed around the outer rim, then he went on to the MOST PREFERRED METHOD OF USE and said there that an inner ballon be placed in between the rubber and the rim.

[meekman2008]

What do they do with the money that is marked.

[robertwc82]

it sort of works, if it goes black you definately have a fake, if it goes amber it might or might not be a fake

[DeadBabyJesus]

If the paper had the starches in it it wouldn't feel real in the first place. It would be like printing out a bill onto printer paper. The pen is useless.

[iDoDew]

The pen is junk. How to make a bill fail... spray with spray starch. It is a false sense of security. Security by obscurity is no security at all.

[spidertron99]

If the mint can print it...so can the forgers

[antivert]

It's getting more and more difficult.. the new anti-forging technology they've come up with is going to be amazing. True, it'll still be counterfeitable, but not without some serious machinery and know-how.

[spidertron99]

Yeah but a person motivated by the lure of quick wealth can move mountains if he wants it bad enough. I think the trick is to re-design the currency every couple of years, that way just as they are mastering the perfect counterfeit bill, the country moves away from that bill and creates something new in it's place. of course, this isn't perfect either.

[darris321]

i figured that out by accident

i had to take down some temperatures at work and we didn't have a pen

so i assumed

hey it'l turn black right? so i started writing and i was like

woah wtf this looks exactly like it does on the 100 dollar bills.

lmao

[Thraxfan54]

Where was this filmed at?

[johnclavis]

I still see people using that stupid pen. I try to explain that it doesn't work now and again, but it seems to be pointless.

[jpcorrado]

it still works against bad fakes

[tenyar]

yeah right I never use my pen on the good fakes. Just the bad ones. Forgers have no knowledge of this pen's ability to detect starch like chemicals. If they happen across this video, they will be able to produce "good fakes" thus making this remarkable device redundant. For the love of god take this video down or the world economy is doomed.

[johnclavis]

"Forgers have no knowledge of this pen's ability to detect starch like chemicals"? What makes you think that somebody who makes his living counterfeiting money wouldn't know about this stupid pen? Are you retarded or just retarded?

[tenyar]

You ever heard of irony or sarcasm John? I thought the intent was obvious? I have listened to every episode of the podcast Randi released a few years ago so your name is not unfamiliar to me. I don't believe I'm retarded but I retain a certain of doubt though.

[urantivirus]

lol@johnclavis

What? No reply?

[AaronD12a]

Wow. Just wow. Another vendor fleecing the government. Who would've thought?

[iDoDew]

the government? No, the public. The government agency tasked with looking for counterfeit bills admits it doesn't work reliably. The Government could care less.