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I am still amazed at how many retailers get stuck with counterfeit bills. You wouldn’t allow someone to come into your store and take something in exchange for an IOU; why would you allow them to give you a piece of paper that may or may not be real currency? If you don’t have a counterfeit detecting pen, get one here, if you do have them use them. Just in case you aren’t convinced here is an article from redding.com:
Counterfeit money circulating through Shasta and Trinity counties
cost residents and store owners several hundred dollars in April.“We have been getting some counterfeit bills — $20s, $10s, $100s,”
said Rob Wilson of the Redding Police Department’s financial crimes
unit. “It’s been sporadic, and we can’t pinpoint specifics. We don’t
know if they’re related or not. A few of them have been obvious, and
some of them have been really good.”Hayfork was particularly hit hard by the counterfeit money as
nearly every establishment reportedly received fake $20s. Most Hayfork
businesses learned of the fraudulent currency coming through town and
started using counterfeit identification pens to check all bills. This
allowed at least three store clerks to identify false $100s, $10s and
even $1s at checkout counters.Store owners were instructed by the bank and local sheriff’s
deputies to keep the counterfeit cash at the expense of the customers
and to record the patron’s contact information.“If somebody comes in to pay with a large bill, and they’re only
paying for a few items, (clerks) should really check that bill — its
security strip; check it with a pen,” Wilson said.Jerry Reichelderfer, pharmacist and owner of the Hayfork Drugstore,
said the store sold out of counterfeit marking pens within a day or two
of the counterfeits surfacing in town. Counterfeit detection pens are
available at most office supply stores, but the pens don’t work on some
of the false bills.At Wiley’s Market in Hayfork, one of the bills marked with a pen
showed the desired yellow ink on the front side of the bill, but the
ink on the other side turned brown. That’s when the cashier suspected
the $20 bill to be a fake and noticed it had no watermarks.
North Valley Bank, the only bank in Hayfork, referred patrons to a government Web site, www.secretservice.gov/money_receive.shtml, that gives specific instructions regarding how to identify imitation money and what to do with it.
The site instructs clerks not to return counterfeit money to the
passer. It further asks people to delay the passer if possible, observe
his or her description, and take down the vehicle license plate number.Store employees in Hayfork said it was awkward for them to follow
these mandates because they know most of the people who carried the
counterfeits and thought they unknowingly possessed the fake money.Storeowners agreed that their patrons seemed surprised and upset
when their bills were identified as counterfeits. At least two of the
people who had counterfeits reportedly said they got them in change
from bars, places less likely to check for fake bills.Letha Anderson, a cashier at Frontier Fuel Mini Mart, identified fake money from two customers.
“The first one was trying to buy a can of chew with a $20. He
handed me the money, and I checked it with a pen like I always do, even
though I know him because he’s in here all the time,” he said. “I told
him, Hey this (isn’t) real.’ He asked if he could have it back, and I
told him: No way!’ ”Storeowners in Hayfork said no one has come by to collect the bills
or even record serial numbers or other markers that might help law
enforcement find out where the bills originated.The Trinity County district attorney’s office said they were made aware of the counterfeits on Friday.
A man from Morgan County was arrested by the Department of Corrections after escaping from a community release center. Officers searched his property and his vehicle and found approximately $1,700 in counterfeit $100 bills and some illegal drugs according to a Morgan County Sheriff’s press release. It’s a good thing for the residents of Morgan County that this man got caught cause no one wants to end up with a counterfeit $100 bill but unfortunately not all counterfeiters get busted right away so make sure you always have the counterfeit pen with you to avoid getting fake money.
MORGAN COUNTY — Federal charges are pending against a bail absconder after he was found in the Gravois Mills area.
Robert G. Dennick, 55, was arrested early on the morning of March 16. Dennick had a parole warrant issued by the Missouri Department of Corrections after escaping from a community release center.
Officers searched the residence and his vehicle and found approximately $1,700 in counterfeit $100 bills, drug paraphernalia, the prescription painkiller Oxycontin and firearms, according to a Morgan County Sheriff’s Department press release.
A Tec-9 nine millimeter pistol was seized from the residence. Taken from Dennick’s vehicle were a .38 caliber pistol, a sawed-off 16-gauge shotgun and a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun, the release said.
All weapons were loaded.
Dennick later confessed to making illegal purchases and alterations to the firearms. He also confessed he was involved in the distribution of the counterfeit bills, the release said.
Officers with the sheriff’s department and the Mid-Missouri Multi-Jurisdictional Drug Task Force conducted a joint investigation.
The Springfield, Mo., office of the Secret Service along with the Jefferson City, Mo., office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating the incident with federal charges pending.
Different countries have different legal punishments for those producing counterfeit money and the punishments are quite tough. The reason why the punishments are harsh is because counterfeit money reduces the value of actual money and causes inflation due to the increase of money being circulated throughout the economy. What this is is an artificial increase in the amount of money in the money supply that is not authorized. This severely devalues the currency and results in losses that can amount to millions of dollars each year.
The impact is so severe that, unfortunately, the companies that receive counterfeit money are not reimbursed for the fake bills, which force them to raise their prices on their products. Even in countries where their paper money makes up just a fraction of their total circulation of money, the effects of the counterfeiting may be minimal. However, the confidence in their currency may decrease significantly.
Beginning in 1996, the United States began making changes in the design of the $100 bill to keep it from being counterfeited. Other bills followed suit for 10 years after the initial change. The changes occurred as follows:
• 1997 the $50 bill
• 1998 the $20 bill
• 2000 the $10 and the $5 bill
• 2003 the $20 bill
However in 2004, the $50 bill had to be redesigned again as did the $10 bill in 2006. Fortunately, the $1 and $2 bills are seen to be not worth it for counterfeiters due to their low value although it is not out of the question for one of these bills to be reproduced.
Penalties by country
Every country has its own set of penalties for counterfeiters. Some just have to pay fines, some just serve time in jail, and then there are those who must serve time in jail in addition to paying fines for their crime. In the United States, counterfeiting is a federal felony that involves the Secret Service. When found guilty of this crime, the penalty is 15 years in prison as well as seizure of the property that was used in the creation of the counterfeit bills. Restitution will most likely have to be paid on top of a number of fines.
Another country that imposes a 15 year sentence is South Africa. They too have absolutely no tolerance for counterfeiters and will place them in prison in a heartbeat because of the adverse effects counterfeiting has on the economy.
As for Europe’s punishment for counterfeiting the Euro, offenders risk four years in jail and fines that could equal up to $120,000. If the crime is an organized crime, then the fines can be up to $360,000. This penalty seems considerably less than that of the United States and South Africa, but the fines may be considered punishment enough although the fines in the United States are determined based on severity of the crime.
In Canada, if someone is simply found holding a counterfeit bill, the penalty is up to 14 years in prison. Australia has a penalty of $5,000 for individuals, $10,000 for corporations and up to 2 years in prison in addition to the fines.
Counterfeiting bills poses a problem all over the world and it is worse in some places than others. It should be known that the bills can be traced to their maker and, once caught, those who produced the bills face severe punishment. It is common for the offenders to think they will never be punished for their crime, but there are ways in which they can and will be tracked down and made to pay for these crimes they commit against the economies of the world.
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The cash register is a very important part of how commercial transactions have been done since 1879 when James Ritty invented the Ritty model after the Civil War. He owned a saloon in Dayton, Ohio and needed to find a way to keep his employees from stealing money from him. They were dipping out of the profits and he was not able to figure out who was doing it and exactly how much they were taking, but he knew it was happening.Ritty was inspired by seeing a tool that counted propeller revolutions on a steamship, so with the help of John Birch in 1883, he was able to patent his Ritty Model. |
This was a great benefit to the commercial world because he was definitely not the only one encountering problems with employees pilfering profits within businesses. But Ritty became quite overwhelmed with running his cash register business and his saloon, so he sold all of the interest in his cash register business to a Cincinnati man by the name of Jacob H. Eckert. Eckert was a salesman who sold china and glassware and had created the National Manufacturing Company. Eckert then sold the National Manufacturing Company in 1884 to John H. Patterson. Patterson then renamed the company the National Cash Register Company.
Patterson went on to improve the functionality of the cash register by adding a roll of paper that transactions could be printed on. This is how the receipt was created and many transaction disputes come to an end. No longer were transaction issues a word game, but there was a piece of paper to prove it. However in 1906, the cash register was improved even more when a man named Charles F. Kettering, an employee for the National Cash Register Company, created a cash register that contained an electric motor.
All the way up until 1915, the cash register had found a home in virtually every retail store. The millionth register sold in 1911 and shopkeepers were able to keep track of their profits and their losses and keep their inventory in check. This made businesses even more competitive because they had actual numbers to go on. If there was a loss, then the shopkeeper would find a way to improve upon that loss.
The National Cash Register Company found so much success because in the 1880s and 1890s, Patterson found a way to sue all of the companies trying to compete with them in cash register sales. Some of these businesses were purchased by the National Cash Register Company and others were just put out of business all together. This was before antitrust laws existed, but in 1912 Patterson was charged with criminal conspiracy under the new Sherman Antitrust Law. The National Cash Register Company accounted for 95% of all cash register sales at that time. However, the National Cash Register Company remained the top seller of cash registers with 5900 employees on the payroll. It was in 1924 that they sold their two millionth machine.
Cash registers today
| Since then, cash registers have touch screens and use the latest technology to compute transactions involving cash, checks, and credit cards. We see different variations of them in our grocery stores, department stores, and mom and pop stores. However, there is an initial on most of these cash registers that just might look familiar and that is the letters NCR, which stands for the National Cash Register Company. They certainly saw their ups and downs from being at the top of their game in 1957 in the computer market to their buyout by AT&T in 1991, but they gained their independence and once again began developing many of the state-of-the-art cash registers we see today. |  |
Anyone can receive counterfeit money no matter where they are. You can go to the bank and get that one $100 bill that was not checked when it was received by the bank. You then go to the grocery store and pay with that $100 bill when the cashier checks it was a special pen that indicates the bill is counterfeit. The cashier is silent and goes to her manager to show them the bill. All the while, you are standing at the checkout confused as to what is going on until the manager comes back to tell you that they must confiscate the $100 bill because it is counterfeit. They have already notified the authorities so the situation can be investigated. Now you are stuck with a cart full of groceries and you must wait for the police in order to tell them how you received the bill.
This is a situation that may be somewhat unusual, but some have experienced. They have been at no fault regarding the possession of a counterfeit bill because, if not checked properly, they can be distributed by banks, stores, and other venues in which money changes hands.
But what if you were on vacation and this happened? First of all, you’re not from the area and you just handed off a counterfeit bill. That makes you look quite suspicious and, unfortunately, can get you into serious trouble and ruin your entire vacation. That is why it is important to take certain precautions.
Precautions to take
One can never be too careful when traveling with cash. If at all possible, one might prefer to use traveler’s cheques or use a debit card or credit card. These items can be reported if missing, whereas cash cannot be replaced. Traveler’s cheques can be replaced if missing so your trip isn’t completely ruined. However, if you must carry cash, there are ways to protect yourself against receiving counterfeit money.
Depending on where you are in the world is going to determine what tools you need, but using items such as:
• A counterfeit pen detector can keep you receiving a counterfeit bill. Simply keep one in your purse or pocket to immediately mark the bill. The mark should show up clear if the bill is real and the mark will show up as dark if it is counterfeit. Although many retailers use these pens, cashiers can get into a huge hurry and forget to mark them.
• UV detectors can also protect you. These devices can come as pens or key chains that you can shine on the bill to make sure the security thread is inside the bill and that the denomination of the bill is printed on it. UV devices that work on U.S. bills also work on Canadian bills. When shined on a Canadian bill, the coat of arms along with the words FIVE CINQ and BANK OF CANADA BANQUE DU CANADA appear over the portrait in blue. The UV light will also pick up the red fibers on the bill.
It is also good to know about the different types of security used on the printing of bills even if you are visiting a foreign country and cannot find a counterfeit detection device for that particular currency. By doing this, you can immediately spot a counterfeit bill and call the authorities or return it as soon as you receive it and let them know that it is counterfeit. This can keep you out of trouble for circulating counterfeit money, especially when you are away from home and trying to enjoy yourself. This can also prevent the money from ending up in someone else’s hands.
There are many instances in which a cash box is needed. In fact, any time that a large amount of money is changing hands; a cash box is a great thing to have. A cash box is nothing like a cash register because it is simply a fire resistant box that money and other valuable items can be placed in. Even if there is a safe in the business, a cash box comes in handy for a number of reasons.
Businesses that should use a cash box
Businesses that should definitely use a cash box are those that deal in items such as jewelry, cars, antiques, or they do some sort of check cashing service. Even if these stores have a safe, it is important to have a cash box standing by. For example: the jewelry store sells a $2,000 necklace. The manager is not going to want to keep that much money in the cash register. In fact, the manager may choose to put it in the safe, but if they are robbed that is the first place the robber is going to want the manager to go.
What the manager can do is place the money in a cash box and keep it in a place where only he or she knows where it is. Many businesses find it beneficial to hide money throughout a locked office and keep very little money in the safe. By keeping the cash box locked and in a safe place, the jewelry store manager can keep very little money in the safe in case a robbery does occur. The same goes for car dealerships taking large cash payments. They may not choose to keep large amounts of money in their safe.
As for the check cashing business, it is only good to keep a certain amount of money in the cash drawer. Check cashing businesses are prime targets for thieves because they know there is possibly a large amount of money. They tend to target these businesses earlier in the day when they have more cash and fewer checks. That is why the check cashing business should keep so much cash in a cash box and so much in the cash register. If they need more money in the cash register, then they can simply transfer some money from the box to the register to continue cashing checks throughout the day.
Other instances a cash box may be needed
Some businesses choose to keep a petty cash box. This is a box that can only be accessed by certain people. It is usually locked and contains cash that can be used for petty cash-approved purposes only. This is a great way to control spending within a business and the money is safe where very few people know where to find it and very few even have a key to access it.
Cash box versatility
As you can see, there are several ways a cash box can be used within a business. As for what businesses should not use a cash box, there aren’t any. Every business should utilize a cash box in some way for their protection. However, if you are a business owner and you do not see a need for a cash box, just make sure that you are not handling large amounts of money that could become bait for robbers. If they know that you are handling large sums, you could be their next target. So make the small investment of getting a cash box and protect your interests. It’s always better to be safe.
Counterfeit money actually has a very long history, which means the concept is not really all that new. Currency has been around for a long time and with currency comes greed. They say that money is the root of all evil and counterfeiting is definitely not an exception. It involves creating artificial money for financial gain and deceives others in making them believe that it is real. It contributes to inflation that hurts the pocket books of people all over the world, it damages economies, and it hurts the reputations of the central banks of countries that are innocent because they are not the ones creating the fake cash. That is why governments impose harsh penalties against those caught making fake money.
But exactly how long has counterfeiting money been around? Well, it is true to say that it has been around about as long as money has been around. But how long has legitimate money been around? Well, it has been around approximately 2,700 years. Before that, our ancestors were trading sheep and cattle to get what they needed. They worked to acquire the things they had, but money was not their compensation. Their compensation was things needed in everyday living. The introduction of money changed everything, including how honestly some people made their living. Money became the way in which people acquired things, therefore things such as poverty worsened.
History
It was approximately 700 B.C. that real currency made its debut in the form of coins. It was within a hundred years of coins being introduced as currency that counterfeiting began. With it, the punishments began as well. Many cultures imposed death upon those caught counterfeiting coins. The practice wasn’t very difficult since the fake coins could very easily be made of metals that held no value, but looked like the real thing.
But it was in 1650 A.D. that paper money was developed and counterfeiting flourished, especially within America where counterfeit money was more common than genuine money. Counterfeiters had become so skilled that when the first federal coins were issued by the U.S. government in the 1780’s, they had the dies cut by an ex-counterfeiter in order to deter the practice, but it was during the Civil War that counterfeiting flourished once more because the United States government issued paper money for the first time.
As a result of this counterfeiting, the Secret Service was developed just to enforce the counterfeiting laws. Their job was to find the counterfeiters before the money ever made it into the money supply. Eventually, the Secret Service’s operations expanded to include the protection of the president, which is on a completely different spectrum from deterring counterfeiting, which was an operation conducted by the Treasury.
However, it was the late twentieth century that brought about machinery such as color copiers and other counterfeit detection devices that made counterfeiting easier. It is estimated that nearly $10 billion in counterfeit bills were circulated between 1990 and 1995. That is why the United States began making changes to their bills in 1996, beginning with the $100 bill. The United States Treasury believes that the new designs on the bills make counterfeiting almost impossible, but with each change it is just a matter of time before counterfeiters find new ways to duplicate the bills.
That is why the governments all over the world are imposing harsher penalties such as 15 years in prison on top of fines and restitution for the damage caused. They have also developed advanced methods to track down those creating counterfeit bills. In the end, the counterfeiters must know that they will get caught.
On Tuesday night Two men were arrested after a McDonald’s employee tipped off the police. These two men were making and distributing counterfeit money. Reports of counterfeit money are only getting worse and it’s highly advisable you get yourself a counterfeit pen before you run into counterfeit money.
Boise, Idaho — Two men have been arrested for making and distributing counterfeit money.
Boise police say the two men have been passing fake 20-dollar bills over several days.
Tuesday night, they arrested Zane Dees and Scott Vance and charged them with felony forgery.
It happened when a McDonald’s employee at Overland and Cole roads recognized a fake 20-dollar bill and called authorities.
Dees and Vance were still at the restaurant when police arrived, and eventually confessed to detectives they have been passing several counterfeit 20-dollar bills.
“During the course of the investigation these two subjects both 18 years old, both individuals had been the last few days in both making counterfeit money and passing it at numerous locations across the valley”, said Boise Police Detective Wade Spain.
Police are asking other businesses to call them if they find a suspicious 20-dollar bill.
Dees and Vance were both arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Ada County.
