Another fake note tale

[Gibbo]

A couple of days ago I had a woman who came in to pay for her fuel, handed me a five pound note wrapped around some coins then immediately walked out. After unfolding the five pound note I could immediately tell that it was a fake so I ran out after and told her.

She said that she got it as change from a fish and chip shop the previous night and wanted it back. I replied that I wasn't allowed to do that and she started whinging about how she was now going to be £5 out of pocket and wanted a manager (but she did give me another £5 note). Now for some reason, both the petrol station manager and supervisor were allowed to have this week off so I phoned the duty manager from the store, knowing full well she would say what I had said but did it anyway just so see me on the phone to someone. The DM said that she could go to the store and speak to her there, but the woman said that she had to be somewhere and would come back the next day.

I never did find out whether she did or not but I think that she knew it was a fake as she didn't hang around. There was no way that I was going to let her just drive away which was why I ran out after her. Also while I was speaking to the woman, who was in her car the person sitting next to her repeatedly kept trying to tell me to just hand the fake note back. Yeah... as if!

[Kristev]

Counterfeit money seems to be growing these days. I mean, we're seeing more and more of it.

[Tama]

At my Mal-Mart we had an apparent "epidemic" (two or more cases in a short period, about a week) of fake bills last holiday season. Some dipshit thought it would be great to counterfeit a $5 bill.

After that happened, they enacted a policy that you have to check (look for the USA [insert bill denomination] strip) each bill BIGGER THAN A 1!

This is terrible all the time but horrible when you get some dad buying $300 worth of toys for his kids in November and he pays all in twenties...

That might not seem like a big deal, but DAMN your eyes hurt after that many games of 'look for the teeny writing.'

Okay, rant over.

[Marmalady]

I had been told that the newest £20 notes were 'impossibe to fake'. Sure, that's why we already have a list of serial numbers on each till to keep a special eye out for.
I did feel for the customer who handed me a fake £20, though. I think she really didn't know. When the supervisor, and then the manager, told her that it was a fake, she thought she could just take it to her bank and get a real one, like you would with an old one that had gone out of circulation.

[Draco]

They are impossible to fake. All new bills are. Until about a week after they're made public.

It's like the Titanic. It was unsinkable. Until it left dry dock.

[ShinyGreenApple]

At the last cashier meeting, LP told us to try and be discreet about checking bills because someone somehow took a $5 bill, erased the number from the corner and changing it to $100 You'd have to look at the watermark to see if it's the right president on the bill, otherwise it'll pass with the counterfeit pens and everything!

[Tama]

That's why we're not encouraged to use the counterfeit pen anymore at my Malmart, because people took 5s and turned them into larger bills.

[Red_Dazes]

we have a fun little scanning thinger majobby. You stick the bill in it and it shows you the holographic parts. It's really cool. Our receipts also have some glowing bits on them so for returns over $50 we have to run them though the machine too.

[Jay 2K Winger]

At the wholesale club, we usually only check the higher denominations-- $50 and $100 bills-- and in my case, I do this by tilting it slightly enough into the light to see the watermark (and compare it to the face in the middle of the bill) and read the strip embedded in the bill.

[ShinyGreenApple]

At the wholesale club, we usually only check the higher denominations-- $50 and $100 bills-- and in my case, I do this by tilting it slightly enough into the light to see the watermark (and compare it to the face in the middle of the bill) and read the strip embedded in the bill.

That's really the best and easiest way to check a bill, but we were told not to do that anymore because it offends people and makes them feel like we're accusing them I mean really? If I paid for something with a large bill and the cashier wanted to check it, I wouldn't care.

[Andara Bledin]

I'd be glad to know that I could be sure of not being handed a fake bill back, myself.

^-.-^

[Chromatix]

In various places, I've seen small light-units which are supposed to help with checking notes. They have a white lit panel which you put the note on (which I assume shows up the watermark and thread), and a UV lamp in the top which shows if ordinary paper was used to make it. Simple and effective - but I wonder how much they cost?

[bsaana]

In various places, I've seen small light-units which are supposed to help with checking notes. They have a white lit panel which you put the note on (which I assume shows up the watermark and thread), and a UV lamp in the top which shows if ordinary paper was used to make it. Simple and effective - but I wonder how much they cost?

I've seen one of those at a Sams Club a while back for around $20. You could use 1 light at a time. It even had it where you could line it up at the edges and the strips going through the bills would line up with like colors and denominations under the UV light.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Round where I am, it's not so much fake notes that are the problem, it's old notes. Since the old twenty pound notes stopped being legal tender back in June, you'd think that it would have filtered down by now to the rocks that most SCs live under, but no. I've had several SCs try to palm the Edward Elgar notes off on me and then throw a tantrum cuz I've told them that I can't accept them. I mean, as far as legality goes, those notes are just pretty pieces of paper now, and people who still have them have to take them to the bank. One woman said when I told her that, "Can't you go and take it to the bank for me?" Um, no.

[MoonCat]

So how are you supposed to check these bills "discreetly"-- hide under a blanket while you're doing it? Honestly, managers/corporate have got to be smoking something nasty...