Stores wary of bad bills
Retailers see more counterfeit cash this time of year,
As consumers flock to make returns at stores or pile up postholiday purchases, experts say there’s still a need to be on the lookout for counterfeit currency.
Store chains are certainly watching, wanting to make sure they don’t get stuck with fake bills.
There’s about $1.3 trillion in genuine U.S. currency in circulation, and about one one-hundredth of 1% — approximately one out of every $10,000 in Federal Reserve notes — is counterfeit, according to the Federal Reserve.
“Now is the time in which we see an uptick in counterfeiting money, not only in Michigan, but throughout the United States. It’s because it’s the holiday season. People are out shopping; clerks are busy. They may not pay close attention,” said Jeff Frost, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Detroit field office. “More is manufactured, and more is being attempted to pass.”
Around the world, the $100 bill is most counterfeited, but in the U.S., it’s the $20, the Federal Reserve found. “People use it more frequently, the $20 (more) than the $100, because all the ATMs dispense it. When someone gives you a counterfeit $100, you remember that person,” Frost said, adding that over the years, technological advances and digital imagery have enabled even unskilled counterfeiters to make fake currency.
U.S. notes have numerous security features that are hard for counterfeiters to work around. High on that list is the physical feel of the bill. Paper money isn’t made of paper. Rather, bills are composed of cotton and linen. If your fingers are saying, “Hmm,” it’s probably a fake bill. Another security “touch”-stone is the intaglio printing, which keeps the ink on top of the bills, giving it a slightly raised feel.
Many retailers train their staff to check for other signs, such as looking for watermarks and a blue security thread.
Art Van, for example, gives its stores blacklight pens that can detect counterfeit currency and educational posters outlining security features of various denominations, according to company spokeswoman Diane Charles. If a bogus greenback is detected, the store employee knows to inform the shopper and then hold onto the bill.
Supermarket chain Kroger outfits its cashiers with UV pens — with instructions to check every note $50 or larger — and gives them training classes about how to recognize it, especially when new currency is introduced, explained Rachel Hurst, Kroger Michigan’s consumer affairs manager.
They return the bill to the shopper and later alert the store’s loss-prevention department.
“They’re advised to apologize and simply say, ‘We’re unable to validate the authenticity of these bills. We’re unable to accept them. We’re happy to accept another form of payment.’ We don’t make a scene at the register,” she said. “There has been a recent spike. It’s the time in the holiday season (when) smart decisions are not always made.”
Here’s a few ways to check whether a bill is real:
The watermark on what the Secret Service calls “big head” bills is embedded in the money and matches the portrait on the bill, visible when held up to light.
Color- shifting ink is used for printing the denomination’s number and the $100’s Bell in the Inkwell design.
A security thread is visible only when held up to light.
A blue 3D security ribbon is woven into the $100 bill, which have little 100s moving when the bill is tilted.
“People are out shopping; clerks are busy. They may not pay close attention.” Jeff Frost, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Detroit field office