I took a counterfeit bill today

[Gizmo]

There was a rash around the UK a while ago about lots of fake £5 notes and its claimed that fake £1 coins are about 4% of the current circulation. Its bad enough the banks don't even seem to try to get the fake £1s out of circulation any more!

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

In my defense, who counterfeits $10 bills?

Simple. Who bothers to check Tens? Who would ever bother to look crosswise at a fiver?

Granted there is a larger return of investment if you counterfeit a $20 and use it on a five-dollar purchase getting $15 back in real money, but while the return is higher, it's harder to pass the $20's because most places where I live require their employees to pen check any bill that's $20 and up.

But when you can make some reasonable fake $5's that no one is going to look at twice...you can get dinner at Fast Food, get some gas, get some chips and dip...all for pennies on the dollar.

My local Sheetz has been so burned that they pen check EVERY bill they get. It's been that bad in my area.

[PepperElf]

The pens aren't as effective as they used to be. We don't even have them in the cage cuz people are taking five's and washing them with 50's. Unless they give you good money checking training it's not really fair.

Yep. Many criminals now bleach the money and print over it.

Another way to check is with a UV light


(the 10 in the first image is a bit off - it's suppose to be orange)

You don't even need a big lamp to do this. IIRC even a small UV light source should be able to pick up on the strips.


Remember

Five
Ten
Twenty
Fifty
One-Hundred


http://www.blacklightworld.com/blacklight_uses.htm good info there too.

[Really]

We had a bunch of 5's and 10's come in around June of this year. People were getting tagged with a bunch of them. I myself ended up taking in a really good $10 bill that was dirty, and nasty, that I knew was bad, but my boss and my bosses boss told me "was good". Sent it in because it was mutilated and guess what came back as fake? Guess who got in trouble for it because my boss pulled the "I never said that" card. Guess who had ever teller and another manager back her up that the boss indeed told me it was good even though we all said it wasn't?

Yeah I hate fake bills. One of my fears as a Teller is to take in a fake bill.

[Ironclad Alibi]

For those fascinated with the world of counterfieting, you need to watch Mister 880.

Based on a Secret Service file, MISTER 880 tells the tale of a sweet old counterfeiter who stymies the U.S. Secret Service for over a decade by passing counterfeit single dollar bills with “Washington” misspelled.

[Willis]

I remember I ended up with a counterfeit $50 bill from a check cashing place. I was receiving money from Western Union. I had no idea it was counterfeit and I honestly didn't even pay attention because it looked legit like the other bills I had. I owed my roommate at the time some money so I gave him the $50 and some other bills. He comes back a day or so later yelling at me saying I gave him fake money like I knew it or something. Apparently he paid one of our mutual friends with the $50 and some store cashier rejected it. He told my roommate that I probably didn't even realize it if none of them did. It got past all three of us but apparently I'm knowingly walking around passing off fake bills. What about him when he gave it to our friend and when our friend gave it to the cashier? Yea my ex-roommate was a F'ing moron. I asked him, if I knew how to counterfeit money did he think I'd be rooming with his dumbass. He had no answer.

[PepperElf]

what sucks is that WU gave it to you too.

[SongsOfDragons]

There was a rash around the UK a while ago about lots of fake £5 notes and its claimed that fake £1 coins are about 4% of the current circulation. Its bad enough the banks don't even seem to try to get the fake £1s out of circulation any more!

I'd agree on the £1 coins.

All I have been able to tell is that it's generally the older coins, the ones with the Queen's Head that's still on the basic stamp (and not the 'old grandmother face' ones). I've noticed lettering that's not raised enough on the face, lettering not embossed enough on the edge and bad milling, and also wonky alignment with the two faces.

Though often the only way you find out is when you're desperately trying to feed them into the machine at the Park-and-Ride and they keep dropping obstinantly out into the rejects...

[Starman]

The only suspect bill I ever got was when someone tried to pay with a $1,000,000 bill. I played it off by telling them we weren't able to make change for it.

[PepperElf]

The only suspect bill I ever got was when someone tried to pay with a $1,000,000 bill. I played it off by telling them we weren't able to make change for it.

they were serious? from what i've read about those million-dollar bills is that the bills themselves don't count as "forgeries" - even if printed on actual money-paper - since the bill was never issued. it's suppose to be just a "novelty". However actually trying to USE it as money can land the customer a forgery charge.

There have been bills worth 5000, 10K, etc... but they're not in use anymore. Oh and yes there was a $100,000 bill - but only for use between banks. these days though it's easier to use electronic transfers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_d...100.2C000_bill

[wolfie]

they were serious? from what i've read about those million-dollar bills is that the bills themselves don't count as "forgeries" - even if printed on actual money-paper - since the bill was never issued. it's suppose to be just a "novelty". However actually trying to USE it as money can land the customer a forgery charge.

I once had a novelty million-dollar bill, with a twist - it was grossly oversize, which is understandable because it was printed on a towel. Where a real bill would have had "This note is legal tender", it had "This note is for drying, not buying". Of course, some SC would probably have the balls to try passing it as money.