Counterfeiting—Don’t Be a Victim!
IT IS nearly closing time and a long line has formed at the checkout counter of the local grocery store. The tired cashier hardly looks at the man before her. He is buying only a small item, but paying for it with a $20 bill.
“Don’t you have anything smaller?” she asks. “Sorry,” he replies, “that’s all I have.” With a sigh she glances at the line of customers and hurriedly changes the bill, anxious to keep things moving.
This cashier does not know it, but she has just accepted a counterfeit bill from a professional passer of bad money. She has been robbed of $20 as surely as if her customer had used a gun. By the time her store’s bank spots the counterfeit and refuses to honor it, it will be too late to remember where it came from.
Counterfeiting has been around ever since the Chinese first invented paper money—about the time of Charlemagne. Since then authorities say that “every currency note issued by any state” has been counterfeited. Today counterfeiting is definitely a worldwide industry. In fact, some of the most realistic phony American dollars are made in Hong Kong!
The international police agency Interpol was established primarily to organize the worldwide fight against counterfeiting. That fight is by no means over. All over the globe, whether your local currency is British pounds sterling, American dollars, or Japanese yen, the danger is growing that you could be stuck with bogus money. Why? The main reason is technology.
Duplicating-Machine Danger
It used to be that counterfeiting required the services of a talented artist and engraver to make the printing plates needed to produce counterfeit money. Today, anyone can make a crude counterfeit on an office copying machine. A 14-year-old boy in Michigan was arrested for doing just that. He used his phony dollars in change machines. (The change machines have been adjusted so the trick won’t work anymore.) So it is no surprise that law-enforcement officials in the United States operate a “Don’t-Be-Tempted” program for office workers with access to high-quality copying equipment.
‘But I would never be fooled by copies of money from an office machine!’ you might protest. Don’t be too sure. For 10 years the police tried to catch a New York City counterfeiter whose product was so poor that it was sometimes mistaken for stage money! He even misspelled the name of George Washington, whose likeness appears on the bill. How was he able to keep passing such a poor imitation? He was counterfeiting $1 bills and people never bothered to look at them.
LOOK at Your Money!
As one police specialist put it, “No matter what kind of currency people use, they simply don’t look at their money often enough.” Counterfeiters depend on this. If you develop the habit of taking a brief hard look at the money people give you, it is unlikely that you will ever be fooled by a counterfeit passer. What should you look for?
“Surprisingly,” says one expert, “often the best way for an individual to check a bill for genuineness is to let his sense of sight and touch determine or gauge it in a general way. People often identify counterfeit bills without knowing exactly how they do it.”
In other words, getting in the habit of looking at good money is the best training you can have for spotting bad money. Regardless of your country’s currency, you can develop a “feel” for what is genuine. Then, if you ever receive counterfeit, it just won’t look right. It may not feel right either, because counterfeiters have a very hard time duplicating the paper used by most countries.
If your suspicions are aroused, simply lay the dubious bill beside a genuine one under plenty of light. Most counterfeit money cannot stand up to such a comparison.
Why the Difference?
“You can see the difference,” said an expert from the United States Secret Service, “because most currencies are printed from plates that have been painstakingly etched by expert craftsmen and artists. Those plates make clear, sharp lines with exact detail. Most counterfeit plates, on the other hand, are produced by a photographic process that uses acid to etch the lines on the plate. Those acid-etched lines are just not as sharp and distinct as the engraved lines.”
While a magnifying glass reveals missing, broken, or blurred lines on a counterfeit bill, even without it most people would see that the quality of the fake is just not as high as the genuine article. Other tipoffs to phony money include serial numbers—counterfeit bills often all have the same number, or the serial numbers may be poorly aligned. Counterfeit bills are also likely to be new and crisp. After all, the professional passer bought them brand new, and you are probably the first person to receive the bill he is giving to you.
Popular Targets for Passers
Don’t expect a passer of counterfeit money to be nervous or shifty-eyed. The passer of counterfeit money doesn’t necessarily look like a crook. He or she is likely a professional, purchasing large numbers of bills for about half their face value, and then looking for people who will unsuspectingly take them. What are his preferred targets?
Service stations, restaurants, supermarkets, bars, department stores and liquor stores are all popular with counterfeit passers. Unlike trained bank tellers, the cashiers in these establishments are generally not looking for bad money. Besides it is not unusual for customers of such businesses to pay for small purchases with $10 or $20 bills, which are the most common counterfeits. Often there are long lines, which put added pressure on tired cashiers, tempting them to neglect to give each bill a quick, hard look. If you work in such a place, be alert! Be especially wary of crisp, new tens and twenties coming from strangers.
Rural communities and shopping centers are getting more and more popular with counterfeit passers, who rightly feel that salespeople there are less suspicious than their urban counterparts. Interestingly, practical advice for salesclerks can be found in the Bible book of Proverbs, which says, “Anyone inexperienced puts faith in every word, but the shrewd one considers his steps.” (Prov. 14: 15) This counsel applies to banknotes, as well as to mere words!
If a stranger enters your store and wants change for a $20 bill, or uses it to make a small purchase, should you not be suspicious? If a passerby stops and buys a dozen eggs from your farm, paying you with a $10 bill, should you not take notice? If there is a long line at your cash register and someone you don’t know wants change, should you not take the few seconds required to give the bill a careful look?
What You Should Do
If you spot a counterfeit bill, your first impulse may be to return it indignantly to your customer. Of course, the customer, even if he or she is a professional passer, will profess shock and innocence—and the professional passer will leave as soon as possible, taking the evidence along.
Most law authorities recommend, instead, that you hold on to a counterfeit bill and contact the police. You might simply say, “Let me check this bill with the manager,” who could have someone phone the police.
Remember, however, that a professional passer of counterfeit money is a criminal and a thief. Someone like that could be dangerous although not looking dangerous. Do not endanger your life trying to detain such a person who is determined to leave. Concentrate instead on getting a good description of him and his automobile, if possible, including the license number.
Afterward, police suggest that you write your initials and the date on the bill, handling it as little as possible, since the passer’s fingerprints may be on it. Then the bill should be kept in a protective cover until surrendered to the proper authorities.
Could It Really Happen?
Could you really get stuck with counterfeit money if you are not alert? No doubt about it. In the last 10 years the amount of counterfeit printed in the United States has nearly tripled, and the amount actually passed has more than doubled! While it is true that American dollars are the most popular currency with counterfeiters, no currency is exempt.
So why not start now to develop the good habit of looking at the money people give you? Remind yourself to be especially alert to new bills coming from strangers. Be “shrewd” and remember that if you carelessly accept bogus money, you have been robbed.
Even though counterfeiting is on the increase, you don’t have to be a victim!
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Getting in the habit of looking at good money is the best training for spotting bad money
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Be especially wary of crisp new tens and twenties coming from strangers