Tarshema Brice isn't a magician, but with the help of a Hewlett-Packard 3-in-1 printer, she was able to turn a $5 bill into $50 or $100.

Brice, a 34-year-old hairstylist and janitor, was arrested last September and pleaded guilty to counterfeiting in April. In total, Brice admitted to producing between $10,000 to $20,000 in fake bills over two years.

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Brice's counterfeiting operation was hardly complex. As Bloomberg explains, Brice would take $5 bills with a specific watermark and soak them in a degreaser called "Purple Power." Following that, she would take a toothbrush and scrub off the ink. After drying the bills with a hairdryer, she then would take the blank bills and print scanned images of a $50 or $100 bill.

Brice was caught by Maryland police after she tried to use a bleached $50 bill. She was arrested along with three other accomplices.

Although her process was simple, her technique was nevertheless effective, thanks to widely available tools. With the rise of digital technology, counterfeiting has become easier to accomplish. What was once a craft that required diligent use of printing plates and presses, now only requires basic technology like a printer.

According to the Secret Service, digital counterfeiting has seen huge growth in recent years. In 1995, less than 1% of counterfeit bills were printed digitally. And in the last fiscal year, 60% of counterfeit currency recovered in the U.S. was created using a printer like Brice's inkjet.

In an effort to inform the general public about this surge in counterfeit bills, the Secret Service has provided information on common characteristics in digitally-printed bills. Similarly, the U.S. Treasury continues to update and change dollar bills in order to foil would-be counterfeiters. The most recently added security feature on the $100 bill now includes a blue 3D security ribbon.