Funny money O_o

[Lace Neil Singer]

Ever had anyone give you fake money? I have, just twice tho.

The first incident happened in the pizza place; I was all alone when a customer came in to order. All went well til he handed me a twenty pound note... I held it up to the light to check it, no watermark and no solid line. Uh oh... I told the guy I couldn't accept it, and he went ballistic. Started effing and blinding all over the place, until I told him that if he didn't shut up and leave, I'd call the police. He left, but I had to sit down for a while with a strong cup of coffee. I still had the fake note, and I gave it to my boss when he got back to the shop. I didn't think the guy had made it; I think he was just pissed off at losing twenty quid.

Second time happened a few weeks ago at the supermarket. A woman handed me a twenty for her shopping, I used the marker pen on it. Grey purple line. So, I told her I couldn't accept it and had to retain it. She was upset, but accepted it in a "can't be helped" way, for which I was grateful as flashes of berserk guy (described above) came into my mind. I handed the note in to a supervisor when she'd gone.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Guy paid for a computer in cash and the total came to about $1,000. Paid in $50's except for the last bit which was a $10 and a $5.

Standard practice was to fan the stack of bills and streak them with the marker pen. Son of a gun there was a bad one...the $5

I inform the guy about it and he goes stark raving on me. I'm accusing him of counterfitting, I'm dirtying his good name, I'm doing all kinds of evil.

Now this guy is a good customer (on most days) and he buys new computers for himself, his wife, and his three children at least once a year. 5 machines per year means I can do nice things for him such as cut him discounts, special service, that sort of thing.

Does he remember all of this? Nope, rant city.

I sit there and watch him have a hissy fit with a calm and rather bored look on my face until he wraps up his rant with "And what are you going to do about it?"

"Bob, (not his real name) While you were going thermal on me, I had my tech load all the equipment into the back of your truck and I printed off the recipt and marked it paid in full. Only the $5 was bad and it was only covering a buck-fifty something. Sign here and you can be on your way. Don't worry about it."

He blanched and looked rather embarassed and to my surprise apologized for his melt-down and went on his way.

Honestly, if a customer was paying for something that had a $200 markup for the store, paid in cash, and came up $1.56 short due to lack of money or due to a bad fiver, wouldn't amost people in the computer stores cut the guy some slack?

Mongo

[Spiffy McMoron]

Reading overthe posts, I've noticed that not one of you have called the police over the passing of the bad money. Now I realize that it may not be worth it in Mongo's case and the $5 bill, but the other, larger denominations might have been worth it. It may just be the law in my corner of the world, but isn't illegal to use a counterfit note, even if you didn't know that it was fake, and even if you didn't make it?

I've noticed that alot of places have stopped accepting $100 and $50 bills, due to this. Just wondering how often this happens, and how often the police get involved?

[Tria]

It may just be the law in my corner of the world, but isn't illegal to use a counterfit note, even if you didn't know that it was fake, and even if you didn't make it?

I don't know, but I'm hoping the cops wouldn't arrest and and send you to jail if you really didn't knw it was fake.

[friendofjimmyk]

I don't know, but I'm hoping the cops wouldn't arrest and and send you to jail if you really didn't knw it was fake.

After working in customer service for many years, I am almost positive the response of the police is "arrest first, ask questions later". I believe that the perp is almost always arrested and then listened to downtown.

[SongsOfDragons]

I was once handed a 2pound (don't have a pound sign on this keyboard - I'm in Amsterdam at the moment!!) coin for a transaction, but only when the person had gone and I was putting the cash in the drawer did I see the gold rubbing off of the outside ring of the coin to reveal dull metal. Best fake I ever did see, but I don't know if we ever did anything about it.

[phillippbo]

Here in the States, the Secret Service handles conterfeit money. I've had a few passed to me, and the Secret Service was more than happy to send around a car to pick up the fake bills, along with anything I could remember about the person who passed them. The reasoning for this is that most "good-looking" fake bills are done by conterfeiting rackets that the Secret Service is tracking and trying to break up. The more fake bills they collect, the easier it is to find out where it's being done. They only arrest private citizens if they have reason to believe they are the ones counterfeiting the bills (by xeroxing them or some other equally stupid method), or they can lead them to the people who are.

I've always been more than happy to call fake bills in and do whatever they've asked me to do (which has consisted of "hold on to the bill[s] until we can get there tomorrow"). Anything to make sure the little pieces of paper with green print in my back pocket retain as much of their value as possible...

[Broomjockey]

It may just be the law in my corner of the world, but isn't illegal to use a counterfit note, even if you didn't know that it was fake, and even if you didn't make it?

I've noticed that alot of places have stopped accepting $100 and $50 bills, due to this. Just wondering how often this happens, and how often the police get involved?

Hate to break it to ya, but as long as you didn't know, and can prove it, it's not illegal. The problem is proving it. Also, you don't get reimbursed for the lost cash if you do prove it.

[friendofjimmyk]

Hate to break it to ya, but as long as you didn't know, and can prove it, it's not illegal. The problem is proving it. Also, you don't get reimbursed for the lost cash if you do prove it.

Ah yes, it's coming back to me now. I do recall if you pass a fake bill...you do not get the real money back regardless of how the bill got passed to you.

[Jester]

Hate to break it to ya, but as long as you didn't know, and can prove it, it's not illegal. The problem is proving it.

Not quite true, at least not in the U.S. Under our legal system, once is innocent until proven guilty, so the burden of proving something falls on the police/prosecution.

Well, that's the theory. In practice, it probably isn't quite that black and white, sadly.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Also, how the hell do you suggest we keep people in the shop til the police get off their fat arses and get over here? With berserk guy I just wanted him out of the shop before he started attacking me! O_O

[flybye023]

Exactly. Plus, if the customer didn't know, you're only going to alienate them by creating a big scene.

Our store's policy is just to hand it over to the bank with all the details we can manage such as what the customer looked like, license plate, time of day. This is at their request btw and we can even provide the security tape for them if they request it.

[Crosshair]

Ah yes, it's coming back to me now. I do recall if you pass a fake bill...you do not get the real money back regardless of how the bill got passed to you.

That is how some people end up dead. IIRC there was some guy who tried ripping off drug dealers by passing counterfits. The found it was him and wacked him hard. I think I saw it on Court TV, but mabee somewhere else.

[Broomjockey]

Not quite true, at least not in the U.S. Under our legal system, once is innocent until proven guilty, so the burden of proving something falls on the police/prosecution.

Well, that's the theory. In practice, it probably isn't quite that black and white, sadly.

I checked the Criminal code of Canada on the web, and it actually said something along the lines of unless you can prove it was unknowingly, or you have a compelling legal reason, passing along a counterfeit bill as a form of payment makes you guilty of counterfeiting (or some related crime.)

[CanadaGirl]

Reading overthe posts, I've noticed that not one of you have called the police over the passing of the bad money. Now I realize that it may not be worth it in Mongo's case and the $5 bill, but the other, larger denominations might have been worth it. It may just be the law in my corner of the world, but isn't illegal to use a counterfit note, even if you didn't know that it was fake, and even if you didn't make it?

I've noticed that alot of places have stopped accepting $100 and $50 bills, due to this. Just wondering how often this happens, and how often the police get involved?

I work at a Liquor World and since late 2003 (or was it 2004?) we haven't been taking any older $100 bills or any US $50's or $100s.