Bogus bills passed: police
They appear to be ‘training bills’ from China
Police are asking cashiers and the general public to keep an eye out for counterfeit bills that have began circulating in the area.
Truro Police Service posted a warning on their Facebook page Thursday about fake $100 bills that have begun showing up at local businesses and stores.
“Its under investigation, we’ve had reports of it at a few locations,” said Insp. Rob Hearn of Truro police.
“We are asking businesses to advise their employees to doublecheck any large bills they receive. These are easily identifiable as counterfeit from what we have seen, so just make sure to pay a little bit more attention.”
The bills resemble official Canadian $100 bills, but are made out of paper instead of the polymer bills circulated here.
The bills also have large blue and white Chinese characters where the clear band usually sits on Canadian bills, making the fakes easily distinguishable.
“They appear to have Chinese writing, but what it says we aren’t a hundred per cent sure. We’re not certain of the origin of them yet.” said Hearn.
Other similar bills have begun popping up across the country this year, with reports of $20 and $50 bills found in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, each with similar white and blue Chinese characters.
Although the fake bills have only recently shown up in communities, talks of similar bills popped up online in 2011, with coin and bill collectors taking to forums to discuss fake bills being sold on eBay.
They referred to them as “Chinese Practice Notes,” and have traced them to banks in China, where they were used to teach bank tellers how to count foreign currency.
One collector online was able to get the characters on a similar American bill translated, which he said reads, ”Training money. Sample. Only for practice, circulation forbidden.”
While the bills mentioned by collectors in online forums look almost identical to the fake bills found across Canada, it is not known if they were used for the same purpose.
Police are still investigating, and ask anyone who finds one of the counterfeit bills, or any other bill they feel is counterfeit to report it.
“If someone is working in a store and finds one of these bills, they should notify their boss or security. If someone finds one or comes in possession of one, please take it and bring it to the police station,” said Hearn.