New type of scam?

[Anakah]

I've seen some stuff in my time but never something like this.

A man comes up and shows us paper work from his bank saying that when he got paid in (enter town, and state) that he went to deposit his money into his bank and received a fake hundred. He had a photo copy of the hundred and notes from his bank. Of course the bank took the hundred away and left them one short. Out of the eight hundred only one was fake. He was here two weeks ago.

Now, I get my supervisor because thats really beyond my capabilities.

SV: Unfortunately since it was two weeks ago we have no real way to verify anything. We can't refund you, I'm sorry...

The man left and seemed content at the answer.

Enter the wife.

Wife comes up and is a bit more pushy than the husband.

The SV was still up there with me and wife caught her.

Wife: I was here two weeks ago and a casino is (enter city/state) and blah blah blah

SV then said she'd call the cage manager.

I was stuck out there talking to wife. She had three black chips.

Me: You want hundreds?

Wife: that's fine, we'll be playing them all here.

I made sure each was real and counted her out.

Me: If you'd like I can show you how to tell if they are fake.

I showed her how to hold them to the light and check for the strip and the face.

Wife: So people in the pit (where the table games are) don't know how to check fake ones?

Me: They should... They don't handle the money the way we do so.... I don't know how they are trained.

She let it drop and I went into the back to see the results.

Turns out we only keep tape for a week and can't even verify that she was at our casino. Her bank papers don't even specifiy WHICH casino. It just says the city and state. So, cage manager took it as a scam and was not going to pay out.

My question was why she'd mention the pit. They don't do cash payouts. That raised a flag too.

The wife never once said that it was ours. Just one in our city. Her husband looked familiar but... still. So, they made it seem like scam and SV went out there and asked for the dates and times they were down, wrote them down and said they'd be contacted after we investigated. So, to me she lied to them anyway.

We checked her play and the woman was negative a hundred. Hmmm... Didn't show her winning the eight.

But my question is what if it had been legit? What if it was? Should we pay up to that? I think so. If they can prove it was us. So a little advice, check your bills everywhere! And hold them up to the light, the pen doesn't always prove anything because people are starting to wash fives and turn them into hundreds. And know which president you are supposed to see in the bill. Same with fifties.

[Aethian]

That and I've seen one notice in a place I used to deliver to talk about the pens not working because somehow they are fitting brown cartridges into black markers.

[bainsidhe]

You mention that the pits don't pay out in cash. What happened to the monies they receive? Are all bills a the cash payout checked? Now I'm paranoid

It sucks, but even if legit this couple is SOL. Unless there is a very good way of proving your casino passed the bill, it's tough luck. I've had an occasional customer tell me *big box retail* gave them a bad twenty. I've also had just as many people claim the bank did .

[ta2ooed1]

You mention that the pits don't pay out in cash. What happened to the monies they receive? Are all bills a the cash payout checked? Now I'm paranoid

I could be wrong but I believe the pits never handle cash at all, just chips.

[Megg]

I had a woman come through my drive through with a fake $50. I could tell it was fake pretty quickly, something just felt off about the bill, but I stuck it under our blacklight thing to confirm. She claimed to have just come from her bank! I knew this woman, she came in a lot, and she had a great job, drove a nice car, and had no reason to try to fake me out. She paid with a different (real!) $50, and went back to her bank. She later told me they verified it as fake, and exchanged it for her.

Crazy, but it happened! I am very careful with my cash these days, you never know. Luckily, after so many years of handling money, I have gotten rather good at spotting fakes quickly.

[Byronthebanker]

It is unfortunate, but the last holder in due course takes the loss on any bills that are authenticated to be counterfeit. That means, that your supposed customer, even with his suspect bill receipt from the bank, is the person that will take the loss if the bill is indeed found to be fake.

Here's the chain of custody for a suspect false bill - customer hands it to the bank, bank believes it to be fake. The banker doesn't have the final say - they just suspect. Banker fills out a form, includes the source of the bill, the circumstances around how it was received, why the bank suspects it etc . .issues the customer a copy of the receipt, and then sends the bill to the Secret Service.

If the Secret Services determines it is a fake bill, they will simply notify the respective parties, and the case ends. If they determine that the bill is actually real, they will return it to the bank, for credit to the customer's account.

It would be a hard case to prove exactly where the bill came from before the customer came hold of it. Even so - the court case would drain more than $100 in resources, to win what - $100?

[WhiteRose]

ironic if you ask me.... what makes ME mad is that when I had a short cashiering stint at a local gas station some legit bills would turn different shades of brown, the newer ones being lighter or whatever...I would get some that would turn darker, but I'd ask the other cashiers if it was OK and they would say 'yes' (even though it aparently wasnt) and I got blamed for it...wtf....they're supposed to be more experienced than me and help me out to learn the ropes...rumor has it that the male owner would sleep with some of the cashiers, so maybe they saw me as competition and didn't want me interfering...even though i had no interest in him...

[Andara Bledin]

I've also had just as many people claim the bank did .

That happens. If the teller gets passed a fake and doesn't notice, they can end up passing it back out to a customer.

But what I want to know is if they won it two weeks ago, why the hell are they only just now coming around/calling to say something to the casino about it? Wouldn't they have wanted to contact them immediately so they could have their money back?

As for tracking the source on a fake $100, it's worth a whole lot more than $100 if they can get any info on the actual counterfeiters.

^-.-^

[bean]

I was handed a $100 at a check cashing place the other day. I heard the employee chuckle a little when I held it up to the light to look for the president and USA 100 strip in it - I told her I've had people try to pass fake bills at work and I would have been fired if I'd taken one. I also told her if she was smart she'd be doing the same thing anytime she got big bills.

I've had a few customers ask me exactly what I'm looking for - I'll hold it up to the light and show them the identifying characteristics to look for.

We had a rash of fake 100's that passed the pen test a couple of years ago - they were apparently bleached $1's. Wrong strip, wrong face when you held it up to the light.

[crashhelmet]

Gamblers can play cash or convert cash for chips at the tables. In most cases, it's up to the dealer to check any bill $20 and under. Anything above, they're supposed to call the attention of the Floor Supervisor or Pit Boss and have them check it before it's played or dropped in the box.

It's quite easy for someone to wash a bunch of $1s or $5s, reprint them as $20s, and play them at a table. The dealer will miss out on it and the scammer will turn a profit. Anything larger, like a hundred, the Pit Boss would probably lose their job for not catching it.

CH