Counterfeit Money

**Skeeter** · 08-18-2009, 04:21 PM

Has anyone here ever come into contact with a counterfeit bill before? Stories?

I have only encountered a counterfeit bill once. I work in a Registrar's Office and I receipt payments for tuition. We also accept small amounts of cash. One guy came in to pay $500 in $100 bills. One of them was just slightly smaller and darker than the others, so I inspected it more closely and noticed some of the security features were a little off. We also have a cash counter that scans the bills and it flagged it as counterfeit. The guy said he came directly from the bank with it and came back the next day with a clean bill from the bank. So...somehow the bank screwed up and gave him a counterfeit bill.

Any other stories?

**thesteve** · 08-18-2009, 04:35 PM

I've never come in contact with one as a money handler of any sort, but a friend of mine showed me a $100 bill he had come across that was a bleached $5 that had been reprinted. All of the security features matched those of a $5.

**redbaron** · 08-18-2009, 04:58 PM

i found a counterfeit $5 one time, I mean who seriously counterfeits small denominations? I guess they're less likely to get caught?

It was a decent copy but there were a few things that were pretty noticeable as far as being a phony. I mailed it to the USSS so that they could deal with it.

rfclef · 08-18-2009, 05:12 PM

I found a box in my closet with bills of several denominations and some get out of jail free cards... I think the color is off on the bills...

***BillSPrestonEsq*** · 08-18-2009, 05:20 PM

I got a counterfeit $1 in a stack, a long time ago. It was a photocopy of a $1, amongst like 30 real ones.

**Skeeter** · 08-18-2009, 05:22 PM

A straight-up photocopy? On regular paper?

***BillSPrestonEsq*** · 08-18-2009, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skeeter

A straight-up photocopy? On regular paper?

yep. It was in a stack and I was 14.

Cam42 · 08-18-2009, 05:26 PM

haha, that's nuts.

I got what looked to be a fake $5 once.

**scared2mosh** · 08-18-2009, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillSPrestonEsq

I got a counterfeit $1 in a stack, a long time ago. It was a photocopy of a $1, amongst like 30 real ones.

I had a kid at AWANA photocopy about 50-100 "shares" (you get one for saying verses and can buy candy and such with it), but I cant imagine just copying a 1$ bill

also... (I figure you are a good person to ask this)

is it true that modern scanners and photo editing software can recognize currency and report it to the proper authorities? not that I would attempt anything of the sort

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cam42

haha, that's nuts.

I got what looked to be a fake $5 once.

same here

roscoestring · 08-18-2009, 06:28 PM

In a neighboring town the newspaper ran a story about a father and son that were photocoping one dollar bills and taking them to the change machine at the car washes and cashing them in. They had done hundreds of dollars like this before being caught. I guess they had heavy duty pockets to carry all the quarters in. This was several years ago in Thomasville, Georgia.

**thesteve** · 08-18-2009, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scared2mosh

I had a kid at AWANA photocopy about 50-100 "shares" (you get one for saying verses and can buy candy and such with it), but I cant imagine just copying a 1$ bill

Oh wow...when I was a kid this would have been possible if you could find the right color paper. The club I work at now makes color copies...at the rate you'd pay to make color copies, you might as well just spend that money on whatever it is you're going to spend those shares on.

**Gustin** · 08-18-2009, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redbaron

i found a counterfeit $5 one time, I mean who seriously counterfeits small denominations? I guess they're less likely to get caught?

It was a decent copy but there were a few things that were pretty noticeable as far as being a phony. I mailed it to the USSS so that they could deal with it.

Yeah.. way less likely to get caught if it's under $20... I worked at a pharmacy/convenience store, and we (not me personally however) would see counterfeits every so often in lower bills (5-10). But we would visually check the security features on any 20's and up.. 50's and 100's had to be verified with the yellow marker.

**scared2mosh** · 08-18-2009, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thesteve

Oh wow...when I was a kid this would have been possible if you could find the right color paper. The club I work at now makes color copies...at the rate you'd pay to make color copies, you might as well just spend that money on whatever it is you're going to spend those shares on.

well the kid was smart enough to photocopy some older IOU notes that the AWANA director had made in an emergency when they ran out of shares (because clubbers were saving them up) on some special bring a friend + double shares night... it was just green paper w/ black ink. The reason I caught him was that the paper was the wrong shade of green and slightly thicker.

Because of that we made an announcement to trade in or spend all IOU notes within the next month or they would be worthless. Now we only use official "AWANA Shares" so as to avoid such problems.

Guitar4God · 08-18-2009, 09:09 PM

I was paying for items in a convenience store where the owner knows me. After accepting my $20 bill he held it up to the light. He explained that earlier in the week someone passed off a counterfiet $100 bill to him and he is not taking anymore chances. He showed me the bill - it was weired to see how 'false' it looked upon close examination.

Edit: Bill is $100 .. corrected

**Sean.thomson** · 08-18-2009, 09:19 PM

Never got any counterfits, a couple of times at my old job I got rolls of dimes that only had two dimes at each end... the rest were pennies...