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If you have a credit card or just bought a copy of Windows Vista, you’re familiar with security holograms — those sparkly bits of film that vouch for the validity of everything from driver’s licenses to software and sports league items.

It turns out, they’re aren’t as secure as they are sparkly.

Experts say the number of counterfeit holograms affixed to equally counterfeit merchandise has tripled in the past three years, as the technology to make them has spread. Today, crafting a convincing duplicate of a security hologram has never been easier or more profitable.

“The hardest part is peeling the original off,” says Jeff Allen, one of the pioneers of holography. “You can duplicate a hologram, and the duplicate becomes a master you can use for production.”

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The most effective way to counterfeit holograms, mechanical copying, costs about $2,500 in lab costs to turn out essentially perfect copies. The profit margins make that justifiable to crooks. Consider a hologram-secured Johnny Walker Scotch Whiskey label. A counterfeited bottle of whiskey costs about $2, and an inexpensive hologram makes it look like the $16 genuine article.