Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Considering Trying to Make Fake Money, or Getting Involved in Online Scams?

If you spend even only a little bit of time online, you know that the world is full of scams and get rich quick schemes. Maybe you've even fallen victim to a few. If you've been burnt, you've probably met others who have been too. Or maybe, you've been burnt so many times you've begun considering creating a scheme of your own?

DON'T!!

There's simply too much at stake. There is no "get rich quick" scheme out there that will work without YOU doing some work.

And if you spent that same amount of time on a legitimate online endeavor it will pay off just the same. So, why not have a program that you can believe in? One that offers products, services and stuff that people actually need and want. Stop trying to make fake money, and go for the real deal.

Rewards programs offer you real deals - not only free stuff, but free money too.

There are so many things that you can do with top online reward companies. You can:

Get paid for reading emails, get paid for completing online offers and trials, get paid for taking surveys, earn gift cards to your favorite stores and restaurants, earn free gas cards, earn cash back from shopping. Even better, some of the top rewards companies offer you stores that you'd normally shop at, with proven track records and stuff you really want. You can also earn cash by referring friends, relatives and associates to the rewards programs.

Before you try to make fake money or get involved with any other schemes, give reward programs an honest effort for a month. With a little effort on your part, you can make money and find success!

Gerardas Norkus is a successful author and publisher of http://www.1st-in-rewards.com

Great tips on receiving free merchandise and money from top online rewards programs.

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What Does MICR Toner Mean? All You Need to Know About MICR Printing

Remember Frank Abagnale, Jr. (or Hollywood hottie, Leonardo DiCaprio, to you!) in the movie "Catch Me, If You Can?" A lot of scenes there showed him cashing Pan Am Airline checks that he wrote using a typewriter. Well, that is not possible now with the emergence of MICR or Magnetic Ink Character Recognition.

Banks have started to find ways to streamline their handling of checks as more people grew mobile and (perhaps have grown rich) found more use for bank checks. To automate the processing of these, a standard electronic processing, handling and reading system was established. This is now known as Magnetic Ink Character Recognition.

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) defines MICR or Magnetic Character Recognition as the accepted machine language specification used in payment transactions on paper - that's bank checks for you. These are characters printed (MICR Printing) in a special magnetic ink (MICR Toner) that is then read by high speed magnetic equipment that is especially made to recognize these. MICR printing follows an agreed pattern or syntax that, besides authenticating the check, provides the bank with the necessary information like the account number, bank routing number, check number and even the amount requested.

Printed with an E-13B font or CMC-7 font, these MICR characters have to follow a standard arrangement of numbers and symbols for these to be read by a high speed check sorting and reading machine. Just like some barcode fonts, these symbols have a pre-determined prefix and suffix that serve as codes for these machines-there's no way Leonardo DiCaprio's character could decipher this as MICR printing follows a lot of strict conditions such as the positioning of the printed lines in relation to the Clear Band Area of the check.

MICR printing involves a special formulation ink called the MICR toner, and these can be printed using a laser printer or printed on a printing press or w/ impact machines. The MICR toner is magnetically charged so that the reader-sorter machines can recognize them through each character's unique shape. And since it is a machine that optically recognizes these characters, it become important then to have an even or consistent print quality, correct placement of characters on the designated printing area to ensure readability.

MICR Toner

You can use your regular desktop laser printer in MICR printing as long as you use MICR toner. MICR toners are specially formulated magnetic inks that are not the type that you usually use with your printers. These may be readable to the human eye but what the reader-sorter machines are looking for are the magnetic signal or the electronic "fingerprints." Trying to pass a check in a bank with invalid MICR codes will have them rejected at the clearing center, may cause you a lot of delays, or worse, the bank teller may suspect a modern Frank Abagnale, Jr. who is totally clueless about Magnetic Ink Character Recognition.

This Article is written by James Kara Murat from, the contributor of PrintCountry Printer Ink Related Articles. Read more about the subject at What Does MICR toner mean All You Need to Know About MICR Printing, and related resources can be found at Printer Ink Cartridges