Fake money spreading again as Christmas nears

As cash transactions intensify nearing Christmas, so does cash counterfeiting. Be alert. Color photocopying, printing, and papermaking have become so sophisticated that the inattentive easily can be duped. Some tips on detecting fake pesos:

• Compare the color with other bills in the wad. Fake cash would be slightly brighter or faded than the genuine. Despite new technologies, counterfeiters still cannot copy the exact money color. More so, because of the security features, expounded below.

• All the bills in the wad may be of similar hue, so check the serial numbers too. Fakes would have duplicating numbers. Too bothersome for counterfeiters to print or mix in a wad fakes of differing numbers.

• Scratch the images on the bill. If it’s fake, the ink could crack, smear, and chip off.

• Feel the bill. Even if of special paper,

All Philippine notes have embedded security thread. On 20- and 50-peso bills the thread is 2mm wide. On 100-, 200-, 500-, and 1,000-bills, it is 4mm. Appearing stitched and metallic, the 4mm security thread changes color depending on the angle. The denomination and “BSP” letterings are printed repeatedly in small font. The back of the thread also has repeated “BSP” micro-prints.

The 500- and 1,000-notes have a reflective round hologram patch on the front left part. An optically variable device (OVD), the patch changes color when the bill is tilted left or right, up or down. It contains a small BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) logo. There is an image of a blue-naped parrot on the 500-bill, and of a south sea pearl on the 1,000. The OVD cannot be scanned or photocopied, nor accurately replicated or reproduced.

Serial numbers have two prefix letters and six to seven numeral digits, in increasing size. Embedded red and