Ways to detect counterfeit gift certificates for department stores

In South Korea, paper gift certificates account for much bigger share in the market than gift cards or mobile gift certificates. In 2014, the value of Korea's paper gift certificate market was 9.4 trillion Korean Won(KRW) and that of mobile gift certificate market was 500 billion KRW. Among the figure, 5 trillion is estimated to account for gift certificates for department stores, 900 billion for gift certificate to use at the pump, 600 billion for recreation and culture gift certificates for shoes. Anyone who wishes to issue gift certificates can pay stamp duty to Korea's National Tax Service and issue them through Korea Minting, Security Printing and ID Card Operating Corporation.

The image above is the picture of one of the widely-circulated gift certificates for department stores. The gift certificate has the value of some 9 US dollars according to the current exchange rate. Gift certificates are used just as cash in membership stores so some of the security measures applied to bank notes are also used to protect them. Theses gift certificates have protruding water mark and partial exposure security thread(with hologram fine letters embedded), making it possible to discern with plain eyes.

In cases where visual detection with plain eyes is tricky, a separate device needs to be used. When the UV light is shone upon the surface of the gift certificate using UV LED Detector MP12t, the fluorescence fiber emerges overall and the hidden logo of issuer 'LOTTE' emerges in fluorescent green. Filling inside the logo are LOTTE's in fine letters. The overall fluorescence fiber also emerges at the back of the certificates.

In September 2015, Korea faced a serious challenge as counterfeit gift certificates worth more than 900 billion US dollars were known to be circulation in the country. The gift certificates of high face value are circulation and can be used just like cash, making them an easy target for counterfeiting crimes. Gift certificates have different security measures and designs but basically share many of those applied to bank notes, so please be aware of these in advance.

Feel free to contact us anytime if you have questions. ; uvleddetector@mv21.co.kr