Dealing with counterfeit money
By saizo6
@saizo6 (2199)
United States
December 13, 2010 2:38am CST
I was watching this program on television called "American Greed" and they were talking about this guy making counterfeit $100 bills. The show was very interesting and it really got me thinking. I know that greed plays an important role but I was wondering what motivates people to go through with these types of schemes. This guy being profiled was obviously smart since he was able to make bills that even fooled those pens we use to check to see if a bill is fake.
My questions are: Have you ever received counterfeit money? What did you do with it?
I've gotten counterfeit money a few times at work. There was this incident a few years ago where someone was going around using these bills in our area. A lot of businesses got them. We didn't even realize they were fake since it passed the pen test. Luckily for us, the biggest bill was $20 so we didn't lose as much as some of the others.
1 person likes this
3 responses
@toniganzon (72285)
• Philippines
14 Dec 10
I can pretty well tell the difference between a counterfeit and real money in our country just by touching it. The fake ones cannot use the special fiber paper that our real money uses that's why i can tell by just crumpling the money or twisting it. Because sometimes it can pass through a counterfeit detector because of the special ink but not my hands. I can really tell by just feeling it with my hands.
So they never get through me, just pass by coz I immediately return it to the owner who paid it to me and inform them that I can't simply accept their money.
1 person likes this
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
13 Dec 10
Hi Saizo6,
You are supposed to hold on to the bill when it is passed to you and don't give them change and call the police immediately. There have been bills around where I live that pass the pen test also. So, I went on a mission to find out what types of paper they could be using that would actually pass the test. My quest taught me that newspaper passes the pen test. All that is needed is to either work for a newspaper or know someone that does. Also, reciept paper does pass. Some reciept paper not only passes the test but is the right width as well and it is not hard to come by. With the right printer, you could print off a whole roll of bills and they would be the right size and pass.
1 person likes this
@saizo6 (2199)
• United States
14 Dec 10
Hi sid556, now that you mention it thermal paper does pass the pen test. I just never really thought of it. But even so that paper is really smooth, I wonder how people would go about making it have the same texture as paper bills. And yeah, we were all warned to do that if we get suspicious looking money. We actually changed our policy at work and stopped accepting bills over $20. Some of the customers were complaining but they were really understanding when we explained everything to them. And since that warning went out there hasn't been any cases of counterfeit money popping up in any of the shops around here.
@jshekhar (1562)
• India
13 Dec 10
Hello Saizo,
Counterfeit money has become a major issue for most of the nations and it also threatens our economy. Not only ours, but the entire World Economy. Here in India there have been a lot of instances when a huge chunk of counterfeit money has been seized from some people. We have awareness campaigns run by banks all the time which tell us ways to identify counterfeit money. I personally don't remember receiving it. Even if I have, I've spent it happily without anyone noticing it, including myself!
1 person likes this
@saizo6 (2199)
• United States
13 Dec 10
Yes, you're right. All this fake money floating around is not helping to revitalize the economy at all. But it seems like no matter how many precautions we come up with those counterfeiters always comes up with different ways to bypass it. It's quite frustrating. Outside of my workplace, I actually don't pay attention to whether or not I have fake bills or not either. But then again I mostly go around spending the smaller bills which has a lesser chance of being fake.
