> It makes me wonder what more sophisticated criminals can get away with.
Tl;dr: 100$ bills produced in all likelihood by a foreign government (suspects are North Korea, Syria, Iran) or maybe criminal gangs are so well done that they are practically indistinguishable from the original.
The numbers printed seem to be pretty low though, and not nearly enough to endanger the economy in any way. Probably its hard to launder the money?
As far as counterfeit currency being a danger to economies, check out Operation Bernhard [1] where Nazi Germany forged British bank notes to flood the economy, with the goal of causing rapid inflation that would be damaging to the government.
There's a good movie as well, from 2007, about the operation: Die Fälsche (The Counterfeiters) [2]. Definitely worth a watch.
This guy made beautifully artistic bills that didn't look official currency and then made purchases with them at their face value: $100, $500, etc.
They were exceptionally good, right down to the watermark, security strip, etc. etc. Even when I had a known real one and a known fake one, I couldn't tell them apart.
Even after they told me what to look for, I couldn't tell.
http://www.esquire.com/features/benjamin-hundred-dollar-bill....
http://www.esquire.com/features/benjamin-hundred-dollar-bill...