On Wednesday, reddit banned a recently created subreddit posted by a brazen new US dollar counterfeiting operation touting high-quality “supernotes." Such advertisements moved within the past few weeks from sketchy online forums to reddit, according to well-known security journalist Brian Krebs.

Krebs wrote Wednesday that such sites “sell everything from stolen credit cards and identities to hot merchandise, but until very recently one illicit good I had never seen for sale on the forums was counterfeit US currency.” Similar links and ads have turned up in posts on various other websites in recent months.

When contacted by Ars, Erik Martin, reddit's general manager, said that this was the first he’d heard about this subreddit, but he seemed unconcerned. “We’re not a marketplace. It’s not like we’re handling the transactions for whatever this is,” Martin said. “If we get a request to remove it, we will remove it. It’s a subreddit no one goes to.”

But less than 15 minutes later, he e-mailed again: “After looking into it, the subreddit was all spam and we banned it.”

The United States Secret Service, the law enforcement agency that deals with counterfeit dollars, did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment.

The ad copy claimed that its “Disney Dollars” in denominations of $100, $50, and $20 bills pass many common tests to detect for counterfeit bills. They are printed on a single sheet, have the 100 USA security strip and watermark, and even boast an “incredibly accurate feel.”

The ad's author, "Mr. Mouse," was charging 45 percent of the actual dollar amount, with a minimum order of $225 to receive $500 in fake bills, payable only in bitcoins.

“Unfortunately, as of this time Disney Dollars do not have magnetic ink, therefore, they will not be machine passable,” the ad continued.

Contrary to Krebs’ report, however, Mr. Mouse did not pay for a sticky on reddit, Martin said.

“The best available anywhere!”

The ad also said that Mr. Mouse is an “authorized redistribution arm of the manufacturer, Willy.clock. The only way you’re getting a hold of these is through me, unless told otherwise.” The ad includes contact details to chat with Mr. Mouse via his Jabber account. Ars initiated a chat but did not receive a reply.

The ad concludes, “For those of you who don't know, Willy.Clock is a master producer creating "Grade A / Supernote" type notes, the best available anywhere!”

A 2010 paper authored by two economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago said that counterfeiting is extremely rare. “In particular, we find that an upper bound on the stock of counterfeit currency in circulation, as a share of genuine, would still be less than 3 in 10,000,” the authors wrote.

The authors of the paper, Ruth Judson and Richard Porter, also did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment.

In 2013, Peru became the world’s number one source of “supernote” counterfeit bills, according to the Secret Service.