Nominating Organziation Name and role, if any, in the Project:
Authentix, Inc.
Product, Feature or Process Owner Release Date (Date made available to public)
01/05/2025
Project Description
The Authentix CashTrax™ online counterfeit detection service monitors marketplaces, websites and social media platforms for suspect counterfeit or novelty currency and works with entities to remove the illicit material. Identification of high-value targets (HVTs) and other significant sources of abuse are paramount to safeguarding currency, and accurate trend analyses can help protect central banks from counterfeit operations and falsification activities. Authentix provides this first-of-its-kind comprehensive digital solution leveraging our multi-modal AI-based technology and global team to deliver an efficient and effective enforcement program.
As a provider of online services to protect IP infringement for over 350 brands, including Fortune 500 clients across the globe, and as an organization that is currently helping 23 central banks to protect their bank notes, Authentix is uniquely positioned to help governments and authorities reduce availability of falsified banknotes and coins sold online and support offline enforcement actions.
Our team demonstrates expertise in intellectual property-related challenges in the digital world emanating not just from the conventional sphere of online marketplaces, but also more challenging arenas like NFT portals and the dark web. Authentix combines cutting-edge technological tools with expert analysis, enabling our clients to reduce infringements and counterfeits on online marketplaces and websites by up to 90%. Our services include the following:
- Track various forms of infringement online and remove these offers by leveraging our long-standing relationships with social media and marketplace platforms.
- Identify and report suspect products on marketplaces, social media and stand-alone websites
- Identify and track infringing content on the dark web.
Improvement of the Banknote or Printing Process
Authentix is the first technology company that has custom-tailored its CashTrax™ online counterfeit detection offering specifically for use by central banks. CashTrax improves the overall banknote lifecycle process by protecting the integrity and stability of the financial system. Counterfeit currency, physical or digital poses a direct threat to the integrity of a nation’s money supply and payment ecosystem. Authentix is presently contracted with two large central bank customers to protect the integrity of their banknotes with online surveillance measures aimed at removing counterfeit currency and other illicit material from a variety of reseller platforms, marketplaces and websites. With CashTrax, customers get access to real-time counterfeit analysis: bringing clarity to the threat landscape.
We provide 24/7/365 monitoring with AI-based risk scoring and seller clustering to quickly identify global hot-spots, focusing on high-value targets. Our state-of-the-art monitoring technologies also enable effective case management workflows, actionable reporting on recent activities, and high-volume takedowns of counterfeit materials online including (but not limited to) the following:
- Marketplaces: Amazon, Shopee, Lazada, Mercado Libre, eBay, Craigslist, Wish, Kijiji, Temu, Alibaba, DHgate, TikTok Shop
- Social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, X (Twitter), TikTok, Telegram, Weibo, VKontakte
The program is highly impactful as Authentix employs an extensive global monitoring team of 150+ analysts and in-house legal experts to conduct surveillance and analysis, along with a dedicated team of agents for test purchases and enhanced online investigations. We also have multilingual contractors in 20+ countries who aid in the identification of local infringements. This team has allowed us to quickly identify infringing websites and marketplaces where counterfeit currency is displayed and/or offered for sale and follow through with website/platform owners, domain name registrars, and other service providers to perform removal and take down of the infringing material and ensure the material is not posted or listed in the future.
Innovation and Unique aspects
Trust is the foundation of any currency. If counterfeit currency is not dealt with in a timely manner using next-gen tools, it undermines confidence in the payment system, making the public hesitant to accept cash.
- CashTrax is a unique and innovative platform that offers banks an intuitive interface with real-time insights, delivering actionable data at their fingertips such as statistics on currency findings, investigations and actions taken. It uses both Google Vision API and Open AI API for analyzing surveillance data and pushes all relevant data (including images) to the Central Bank’s repository server, including description of surveillance activities, images of infringing material, and information to be used for investigations.
- It helps Central Banks make data-driven decisions on security feature selection for future denominations. For example, statistics that can back up the need to switch from ‘commercially available’ easily counterfeited security features to a newer, safer technology platform.
- CashTrax user-friendly analytical dashboards are customized to summarize and translate data into easily understood visual components. They are customized to fit the Central Bank’s needs and requirements and are updated on a daily basis with notifications, allowing complaints to be filed within 24 hours of identification.This is the only platform in the industry that provides Central Banks with:
- Identification of infringing samples discovered (including dates of discovery)
- Identification of infringing websites, marketplaces where the infringing currency samples were located
- Proposed actions to be taken regarding take down/removal of infringing material
- Status reporting of removal activities
- Trends and insights regarding high-value targets for further investigation (including test purchase targets)
- Updates on cooperation activities with infringing website and platform owners, domain name registrars, and other service providers to ensure similar online postings are not listed in the future
- Public education and training – What specifics to look for to distinguish genuine banknotes from attempted counterfeits.
Environmental Impact
The sale of counterfeit banknotes online has a surprisingly real environmental footprint. This is not just a financial or criminal issue, it creates a chain reaction that increases resource use, waste, and emissions across the entire cash handling ecosystem. CashTrax helps maintain public confidence in banknotes and allows Central Banks to deeply access the strengths and weaknesses of counterfeits.
- Circulating counterfeit bills can force governments to reprint higher volumes of legitimate banknotes to replace compromised notes. Better online tracking and quick removal and take down of infringing material reduces the circulation of fake bills, which in turn reduces the need for reprinting. Less printing → less resource use → lower environmental footprint.
- Destroying counterfeit bills also has an environmental cost. Preventing counterfeit circulation reduces the volume of notes that must be shredded or incinerated.
- CashTrax reports ensure efficient law‑enforcement operations. Data is securely and easily accessed by the Central Bank management and law enforcement agencies to stay informed on important metrics and key indicators affecting both core and auxiliary services. These digital tracking tools allow investigators to:
- Identify counterfeit hot spots faster
- Reduce unnecessary field operations
- Target interventions more precisely
- Fewer broad sweeps and physical investigations mean lower energy and fuel consumption.
