counterfeit $10.00

[Lar Hylobates]

I caught someone with a counterfeit $10.00 today. I took it from their hands as they were trying to insert it in my Rowe 3500. The changer would not accept it.

It is a very good color copy or color print on great paper. The bill has been heavily "aged". I truly believe she was simply trying to get rid of it as a merchant would be unlikely to accept it or she was testing the capability of the changer or the quality of her work. I took a good look at her and gave her a real $10.00 for it as I wanted the bill to inspect. The main reason that I kept it is this: The phony bill actually has pieces of a real bill cut into it in two spots. The real pieces are only one dollar pieces and the work is not clean. I think it has been done in an effort to cover up smudges or flaws on the counterfeit. I am sure changers can be fooled into believing a particular bill is of an incorrect denomination if it scans areas of the bill that have been manipulated. I know someone else here has received a similar bill. I am now seeking further info on such an occurance as I would like to determine if she was simply trying to "unload" a bad bill or is my changer being specifically targeted. Obviously if these real cut outs are in the correct places for the scanner of the changer I am being targeted, which would upset me dearly.


stonecoldkiller@sscckk.com

[Kitty]

Did you try the changer with it? Did it vend?

[Lar Hylobates]

no, it is very "worn" and taped to disguise the paper quality. It is not bad, but not real either.

[Chuckels]

It did happen here once a couple of months back and I now keep the altered bill in my wallet. Someday I may unload it on my comp though.

I did fret somewhat at the time I found it but then a friend pointed out that the technique is limited by the fact that the other bill that gets altered in the process needs to be spent at a store or bank. The whole process is thus too troublesome to undertake and is not likely to be employed with a frequency that is worthy of attention. Just yesterday in fact I lowered the security level for tens back down to the level it was prior to the incident. It is best to make it as easy and quick as possible to get the bill from the customer.

Chuckels

PS. Hylo, I would like to visit you someday at your store and get an idea of your expansion possibilities. Do not concern yourself with me as comp though as I am really south of southern cal aka san diego.

[E&R]

Many months ago, my old BC12 changer accepted a few of counterfeit $5 bills similiar to once you mentioned (cut/paste over $1 bill). I had to stopped accepting $5 for while. Since I upgraded the the validator, it had been O.K. for now.

[Andy]

This is a well know counterfeit attempt. What someone does is to take a $1 bill and cut the corners off. Then they will take four larger bills lets say a $10 bill and cut one corner off each of these. As you can expect a $10 bill missing one corner is no big deal and will be readily accepted anywhere. These corners are then taped on the $1 bill which is then passed off as a $10 bill to unsuspecting retail outlets. Warn your attendants.

The first thing to do in training employees is to alert them to the fact that any fraud involves getting cash back in the hands of the perpetrator, It happens when they give you $10 for an item that costs 75 cents. They get the cash back in real money. I tell my employees that any time they've got cash going back, look at the bill they are handed.

mark any bills of $5 or more with a counterfeit detection pen sold in office supply stores for about $3. The pen turns genuine bills brown, counterfeit bills do not change color.

Chuckles,
I am sure you were joking about passing that bill but in case you weren't The minimum penalty is 15 years in prison and a $30,000 fine for manufacturing and passing fake notes.

[Duane]

Andy,

You stated:

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mark any bills of $5 or more with a counterfeit detection pen sold in office supply stores for about $3. The pen turns genuine bills brown, counterfeit bills do not change color.
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My pen states:

Yellow/Clear - Currency is good.
Brown/Gray - Currency is suspect.

When I check bills the pen leaves a yellow mark on the bill that will disappear in a few days. I haven't ran into a "suspect" bill as of yet.

Either we have different pens or all of my bills have been counterfeit. Yikes!

Duane.

[Andy]

Ok I should have said my pen reacts this way. The old saying: there is more than one way to skin a cat applies here.

[Kitty]

I worked at Nationsbank prior to entering laundryland and on the teller line we had a currency pen. Brown for counterfit, clear for good. Kmart was a customer and several hundreds would pass through their counts, and they'd deposit. We'd catch most but some would go through us, always going straight to the fed, and always sent back to the branch. Some counterfit bills are hard to detect, unless you have the pen.

Dave almost had a coronary at Christmas when I was decorating the tree. It thought it would be cute to have dollar bills on the tree as ornaments. I color copied some great specimens, they were slightly smaller than a regulation dollar bill.......but you can imagine the possibilities of such an ornament. Needless to say, there were no cutsy dollar bills as ornaments on the tree. :)

[Anonymous]

The concept of conterfeit bills intrigues me. I don't think I could tell one from the real thing. I must admit that I never really look at them that carefully. Then again, neither does my bank. They just count them and put them in their drawers. They don't mark them that they came from me or put my account number on them, so if the fed ever found one they would have no way to trace it to me. Not that I am conterfeiting, but why do some banks check this and others, like mine, don't check at all?

[Kitty]

I only checked Kmarts because they were depositing anywhere from 100k-150k thousand bucks every few days, and it was in our policy to scrutinize commercial depositers large bills for deposit. Most of the deposit would be counted and strapped to send directly to the fed. We would strap the Kmart deposit with the teller initials as well as a code stating it was the funds from kmart. As a mat depositer you can't be getting more than 1 or two a count? Texture of the bill is a big clue as all large bills are peice counted. If there is any indication theyd use the pen.

[Andy]

As you may know the paper used for currency production is very special and has a feel like none other. Experienced currency handlers are the best counterfeit detectors around. On occasion I will see a teller stop counting and recheck a bill if it does not feel like the real thing. Also, if the tellers know you and trust you they may be less likely to check or double check your deposits as they might for a stranger in a black trench coat, sunglasses and beard.

[Lar Hylobates]

The bill is counterfeit. It is a copy or print of a ten dollar bill. The "cut outs" are of a one dollar bill but only amount to about 5% of the surface space. This is NOT the "cut the corners off a ten" routine. I want to know what area of the bill is "scanned" by the changer to determine if this bill was made for my changer or if this idiot was just trying to unload it without facing anyone.

I will pass the bill off to my bank when I am through with it. Like Kirby, they run them through their machine, strap them and that's it. No trace back to me.

And NO, their machine is just a "dummy" counter, not a detector model. Stupid I know, but I thought it was even stupider them telling me.

[Lar Hylobates]

Chuckels,

I ain't got mo expansion possiblities. My wife has just decided to milk the store until it dies.

I'm hoping she'll ask me for the address one day and will actually put in some work.

[mike]

I received a bunch of fives (counterfeit) (Canadian), one day. My changer (standard) took them !

I asked my attendant (gormless) about it, and she said "I wondered why that guy with sunglasses and no laundry kept getting change out of the machine"

He only got tokens, so my loss was less than half what it might have been, and I suspect he probably won't be back for more tokens.

Looking on the bright side, maybe he'll hit my competitors !

Maybe he was one of my competitors (paranoia creeping in !)

[buddy]

I was watching TLC or Discovery channel few weeks ago. There are various counterfeiting operations in Europe and Asia where they are so good at Counterfeiting $20.00 and $10.00 bills that it passes through Federal Reserve Bank's and Treasury's scruitiny.

There is this guy well known in this area who has perfected the duplication of $20.00 and $10.00 bills and makes exact replicas including hollograms.

They caught him but they say there may be others.

[Kitty]

HL

I wasn't saying that you could not pass the bill off to your branch, however, not all tellers are idiots. If they feel the note and detect that it is not a valid bill they will immediately return it to you and not allow you to deposit, or they may contact the police. The branches certainly do not want a string of counterfit bills roaming in any town. Banks look at this very seriously. I was supervisor in charge of the vault, any funds that were retruned to us was charged against our branch. Thus, not good for me. So, I intsructed the tellers to be very attentive to detail, especially just before and after the holidays. Thus the reasoning when Kmart brought in 20K of 100 bills we simply counted strappped, documented that they came from Kmart and ordered a fed pick up. Any that came back would then be charged to kmart and not the branch.

[Chuckels]

Hylo,

I spent $70k remodeling our storefront last fall and that raised my wife’s eyebrow enough that she actually looked in on the result. I think it was her second visit in two years. As for getting her to do some work here and face the public with their dirty loads I am under the impression that she would rather starve. And although I am the first to admit that on the surface this biz is not at all glamorous nearly every day I secretly revel in it's simplicity and monetary reward. A fake bill, broken washer, stolen dryer load... relative to working for another idiot this is paradise found. She don't get it but that's OK.

As for the altered bill we received it is 100% real. It is a combination of a ten and a one. The perimeter is a one and the center is a ten. 100% real fed paper and no $3.00 marking pen will tell you otherwise. It is really well put together.

Do not shelve your remodel plans so soon. Our store is up 40% just after 3 months and is more than 3 times paying for itself on a monthly basis. If you have a good lease or own than go for the glory. It seems like your store is a perfect candidate for expansion.

Chuckels

[CharlieS]

Hylo -

The problem is, if you know the bill is fake or altered, and you pass it along, you have now committed a federal crime (read felony). If you don't know, you have not.

Of course, the gov has the responsibility to prove that you knew, but do we really want to go there?

We've finally learned to understand your style of humor and to appreciate it! I don't think that the fed has put internet computers in their prison cells yet, so until they do, please keep yourself out of trouble!!!

Charlie

[Kitty]

Chuckels, Is the bill something you can scan and attach to the thread to give us a view?

[Andy]

CHuckles,

Your comments:
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I am the first to admit that on the surface this biz is not at all glamorous nearly every day I secretly revel in it's simplicity and monetary reward. A fake bill, broken washer, stolen dryer load... relative to working for another idiot this is paradise found. She don't get it but that's OK.
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I think the same thing everytime I empty my change machine.

[Kitty]

Although I do not reap the great rewards BD does, do fairly well for what I do. This past weekend BD took advantage of the snow, went to winterplace on Sunday. After he took care of the weekly duty of the stores Saturday night, he left early Sunday am. Usually the weekend duty is one trip to the busy store and after that trouble shoots any possible problems. Well, after he goes, the freaking mat calls not once but twice, and then another mat needed attention. As I have had surgery within the past two weeks, I had to take my daughter with me to lift the buckets of quarters into the changers. She absolutley hated the experience, and she vowed not to go with me again. However, since she is grounded, I have a slave until further notice.

[Lar Hylobates]

CharlieS,

I really don't think I am a bad person, but I am positive that I have committed many felonies and am also actively planning a few. None have ever involved the usual violence or danger that you see on TV, but never the less are crimes.


P.S. I NEVER get caught.

[CharlieS]

Hylo - I volunteered at a state prison for 7 years. I made many friends there who felt the same way!

:)


Luv Ya
Charlie

[Lar Hylobates]

LOL...re-reading that post I would tend to agree with you.

I'll just repost as I have never been caught.