I took a counterfit $50 bill in my bussiness this afternoon.. the bill felt and look odd and it passed the brown pen test.. but it bugged me so I closed and took the bill to the bank. the bank confirmed it was fake. It was $50 printed over a bleached $5. The police came a picked up the bill and took a report. I want all the bussiness in town to know I had this problem

That sucks. Good for you for catching it.

Did you happen to remember the customer who gave it to you?

I talked to a business owner yesterday in Bryan this same exact thing happened to. Only way you could tell was the little strip said $5 instead of $50

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Only way you could tell was the little strip said $5 instead of $50

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I thought that only the $20 or more bills had that strip in them?

I didn't know you could bleach money like that. I'm gonna have to try that.








KIDDING!!!

sorry to hear this - thieves EVERYWHERE these days

I stopped at a fast food place in Pasadena a couple of months ago and they had a poster in the window telling folks to watch out for those.. Sorry you got hit. Did the right thing by filing a police report though.

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I thought that only the $20 or more bills had that strip in them?

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nope, $5s and $10s have them too

$5 and up have the strips...

I know it is two days away but I will try to remember to post some identifying information for counterfeit bills on Monday. I have that info in an old press release that I did.

I know 90% of my customers, this was one I didn't know. I am sure I will not see him again. I will trust my gut next time and refuse it with an excuse about not enough change ...

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I didn't know you could bleach money like that. I'm gonna have to try that.

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Years ago, I had read the counterfeiters in Columbia would bleach singles and print hundreds on them. The paper is the toughest thing for someone to copy the feel.

We've been seeing several of these pop up lately. Be sure to file a report with the local police if you come across one.

I also own a business in Bryan and took in a counterfiet $20 yesterday. It was a decent counterfeit but didnt pass the marker test. I caught it right away and confiscated it and filed a report with the police.
The best way I have found to catch them is to look for the metallic ink on the eagle logo and the "20" on the face of the bill. The counterfieters havent been able to duplicate that yet as far as I have seen.

A good way to determine whether or not a bill is counterfeit is to place it under a black light. The security strip glows different colors depending on the denomination. The following was taken from the Department of Treasury website.

ULTRAVIOLET GLOW: If the bill is held up to an ultraviolet light, the $5 bill glows blue; the $10 bill glows orange, the $20 bill glows green, the $50 bill glows yellow, and the $100 bill glows red - IF THEY ARE AUTHENTIC!

Just FYI - you can't rely on the marker test anymore. Most fake bills now are actually real bills that have just been bleached and reprinted. (just like the $50 you got today). ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS hold the bill up to the light and check the water mark and the security strip.The water mark face should match the printed face (think Lincoln with Lincoln) and the security strip denomination should match the printed denomination.

i agree with the watermark test. the watermark should match the printed face. the security strips are a good test too, but hard to memorize. if u have a hundred, make sure ben frank is in the watermark, etc. you dont even have to remember anything, just make sure that the faces match.

fyi..rumrunner is secret service

A washed bill will also not have color shifting ink, and the president watermark may be there from the $5, but will be the wrong president.

Finally, the location of the fabric strip is different.

the pen test is mostly useless.

I was at 1st victoria bank in Hearne yesterday and a woman was trying to pass a bleached 5 as a 50. The people at the bank were able to tell by the watermark being of a different pres than the picture.

The sad part is, many of the people who are passing counterfeit bills didn't originate them, and never realized they were counterfeit.

Often it means they're out of $100 or $50, plus they have their name put in the CIA list of "people to keep an eye on" (happened to a friend).

It also makes shopkeepers more hesitant to take big bills from people who have them legitimately.

-Treloni

Treloni makes a good point. Consumers, watch the bills you're given! If you're being paid for something in cash or even breaking a large bill at the store after payday.

I have had a big learning curve here. Thanks for all the imput. I called KBTX and told them what happened. They said they were busy and had to check it out? I understand needing the truth for stories. but a false story that made people and bussinesses look at their bills over the weekend couldn't have done any harm... and could have saved lots of people problems of counterfit money.. It looks like this isn't an isolated insident. Still crying over 50 bucks..

Thanks for the warning. We had several big bills this weekend. All deposited so far- hopefully they are all good!

I work at a bank and this morning we had 2 separate businesses that each had a counterfeit $100 bill in their deposits. It had to be the same person because the counterfeit bills had the same serial number printed on it. Everybody be careful when it comes to $50s and $100s!

i recently worked at a bank and that happened to us also.

for those of you talking about the strips that are in the bills...they are located in different spots on each bill. so when you place the bill under the ultraviolet light, it indicated that the strip is in the $5 spot rather than the $50.

I haven't had this happen,

IF someone hands you one and you find out it is a fake, what do you deal with it. Do you just take tell them to take it to the bank and trust they will or do you get the name and license plate and turn them in (not sure because if they are unsuspecting victim, I would hate to have them on the black list)

I knew I would forget to do this Monday. Sorry for the delay but this is some information that I gathered for a press release that I did a while back.

In addition to the detection pens, merchants should also use standard counterfeit note check rules to attempt to identify counterfeit money. Some of these rules are as follows:

Check security features
o Red/blue fibers
o Security thread (1990+)
o Color shifting ink (1996+)
o Micro printing (1990+)
o Watermark portrait (1996+)

Hold note up to light source to better see Security Thread and Watermark

Place note under UV light. Security threads will glow a certain color on 1996 and later series notes depending on denomination.
$100 red/pink
$50 yellow
$20 green
$10 orange
$5 blue

Location of Security Threads
$100 between FRB and picture
$50 between picture and T-seal
$20 left of FRB
$10 between picture and T-seal
$5 center to left of FRB

Currency paper will contain randomly disbursed red and blue fibers embedded throughout the paper.

On a $20 look at the number “20” in the lower right corner of the face of the note. When you tilt the note up and down the color-shifting ink changes color from copper to green.


Merchants should not rely on a just one counterfeit check rule to identify a currency note as counterfeit. If a merchant finds a bill were 2-3 of the rules identify the note as counterfeit then the police should be notified immediately and as much information as possible should be obtained on the person presenting the counterfeit note (i.e. Description, license plate number, etc.).

Hope this helps.

Don't be silly everyone. Only the government is allowed to counterfeit. The money obviously gains it's worth based on which printing press was used.

quote from Chendricks:
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"I have had a big learning curve here. Thanks for all the imput. I called KBTX and told them what happened. They said they were busy and had to check it out? I understand needing the truth for stories. but a false story that made people and bussinesses look at their bills over the weekend couldn't have done any harm... and could have saved lots of people problems of counterfit money.. It looks like this isn't an isolated insident. Still crying over 50 bucks.."
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I did some digging and counterfeit money cases are an issue in our area. I'm trying to catch up with other business owners and people who have come across this counterfeit money. I'd be interested in seeing one of these bills, and hearing from people.

KBTXshannon

The fellow that owns the Oaks Food Mart a block or so down from your station took one last week, I imagine the Police or Feds have the bill by now though.

Thanks. Apparently, there have been 27 cases in CS alone.

Has anyone else had a problem with counterfeit cash?

Who carries around 50 dollars bills in their wallet? that just seems like an odd bill to have cause chances are you didn't get it from change any other business

my brother said he just caught another one from someone trying to deposit it at bank...