Emmanuel Odion Esezobor, 51, was convicted by a Federal judge of stealing $13,800 from the U.S. Postal Service in February and March.

Esezobor, now a former employee of the Alamo Post Office in Texas, was found to have been purchasing money orders with counterfeit cash he got from Nigeria and cashing them for real US currency. He then used that money to pay for his utility bills.

An undercover investigation started in October by the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General after a supervisor at the Alamo Post Office found counterfeit $100 bills in the cash register and reported it.

“[It] did not feel like … a genuine bill,” said Secret Service Special Agent David Stewart in an affidavit.

On Thursday, a U.S. District Court jury in Oakland convicted him on one count of theft of public money and seven counts of passing counterfeit money.

This goes to show you that counterfeit cash is a big problem, even in government-run facilities such as the US Post Office.

Don’t let your business suffer from counterfeiters! Get yourself a counterfeit detector now!

For at least a year, Kingston National Bank has required its tellers to run all money through a counterfeit bill detector that can both count currency and detect counterfeit bills. The process is done upon receipt so they can determine who brought in the money.

Bank officials then turn over the information and money to law enforcement.

Once a bill is reported, Chillicothe Police Capt. Larry Bamfield said they will try to talk with the person who tried to pass the bill. However, the counterfeit often isn’t found right away, which makes it more difficult to find the person who passed it.

Local businesses have been doing a better job of checking their money because the majority of recent reports have been of bills detected upon receipt.

“The majority of businesses anymore check them all (with a counterfeit detector pen),” Bamfield said.

Local police handle the investigations, but the money eventually is sent to the Secret Service field office in Columbus to possibly help in larger investigations. In fiscal year 2010, the Secret Service reported making 3,028 domestic and foreign arrests for counterfeiting offenses and helping remove more than $261 million in counterfeit money from circulation across the country.

The Secret Service was created in 1865 to combat widespread counterfeiting that was threatening the financial infrastructure of the country at the end of the Civil War.

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The counterfeit pen helped get a man arrested for using a 20$ bill in New York. Counterfeiting money is a trend that unfortunately looks like it will not be stopping any time soon.

NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. — To the eye, this may look like a real $20 bill, but upon closer inspection it’s clear that it’s counterfeit. It’s one of many bills New Hartford Police obtained last Wednesday after an incident at a local Staples.

Mohammad Masood Bahrami, 20, attempted to purchase printer paper and equipment with counterfeit money, equipment police say he intended to use to make fake bills. When suspicion arose, police say he left the business, but was followed by the store manager.

“He runs out, sees the person get into his vehicle. Got the plate down and notified us of the description of the person, the vehicle, and the plate number,” said New Hartford Police Investigator Richard Salamone.

Which led to Bahrami’s arrest and a search of his home. Police obtained his computer and printer, along with the remaining counterfeit money.

With modern technology, police say it’s easier to try and pass off fake money, however most people don’t actually put it into circulation.

“There’s not a lot of them that go forward and try passing them afterwards, but it does happen, yes. That’s why all the merchants have that pen to detect whether it’s counterfeit or real,” said Salamone.

That pen is what tipped the store clerk that it was indeed a counterfeit bill. Strangely enough, Bahrami had the real bill the whole time.

“This is the real $20 bill that he made copies of, and he was in possession of the real one the same time as the counterfeit one,” said Salamone.

Bahrami was charged with one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument, along with petit larceny.

Bahrami is scheduled to reappear in New Hartford Town Court Tuesday afternoon where he could face additional charges.

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Not only do you have to be wary of customers trying to pass off phony currency you have to make sure your employees are using a proper counterfeit detecting marker as well.

Raleigh, N.C. — A former Kangaroo gas station employee faces charges of conspiracy after police said he accepted 20 counterfeit bills.

Police
said on Aug. 19, Timothy White, 19, of 315 Wrenn Street in Apex,
accepted the $100 bills and pretended to use a counterfeit marking pen
when he checked the bills, according to a warrant released by the
Raleigh Police Department.

White is accused of conspiring with unknown persons to commit the felony of obtaining property by false pretense.

Counterfeit $1 and $5 bills are circulating through businesses in Humboldt County, and investigators with the Eureka Police Department are working to sort out who’s passing the bucks unwittingly and who is to blame.

”They’re getting passed left and right,” said Sgt. Patrick O’Neill, the lead investigator in the case. “The hurdle is tracking down the people who are passing these and then finding out what their involvement is.”

Thousands of counterfeit dollars have been identified since a rash of small bills began circulating in May, but Eureka Police Department spokesman Murl Harpham said their use has increased over the past two weeks.

O’Neill estimates only $300 to $400 in faux bucks have actually been spent and reported, but considering the small denominations used, that’s around 100 counterfeit bills lining Eureka businesses’ tills.

Most of the bills have been spent at gas stations and convenience stores, where large bills are often checked using marking pens that detect forged money. However, O’Neill said cashiers often do not use the pen on $1 and $5 bills.

”Often the pen isn’t used on small bills, but it reacts the same way,” O’Neill said.

No suspects have been arrested, O’Neill said.

”At this time we don’t have anything solid to go off of. We have identified people who are involved in the passing, but is it someone who got it in change, or
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somebody who’s actually involved in it?”

Last week, authorities spoke with a transient woman who was carrying around $4,000 in counterfeit $5 bills, O’Neill said.

According to Harpham, the woman told police she found the bills in a Dumpster, and later led them to the site, which was located behind an apartment occupied by a person authorities previously questioned for allegedly passing counterfeit bills.

”We’re taking the woman’s word for it they came out of the Dumpster,” Harpham said.

O’Neill said he isn’t certain how the bills are being made, as there are a variety of methods that can be used to forge a dollar. But the bills have been printed on ordinary copy paper, “or something similar,” O’Neill said.

”The paper feels different,” he said. “It appears slightly different, too.”

According to a 2006 report from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, about one in every 10,000 U.S. notes is counterfeit.

Many of the $5 bills found in Humboldt County have a serial number of FL51355473A. The $1 bills have been observed with the following serial numbers: L59213375L, L84466701G, H60622385B, L27228448A.

O’Neill said anyone who finds a bill or has information about the case should notify the Eureka Police Department at 441-4300.

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Take the 10 seconds and test each and every bill with a counterfeit detection method, or say goodbye to your hard earned money. Don’t learn the hard way like this guy did.

COLUMBIA, Tenn. – A counterfeiter has set his sights on Columbia.

He’s struck more than 20 times in the last two weeks.

If a clerk collects a counterfeit $20 bill there’s a good chance that bill is accidentally passed on to the next customer.

Police want business owners, their employees and customers to take a hard look at their money.

“I was busy. I got a line right beside me and I needed to finish it very fast,” said Mike Hanna, who owns a store.

Twice in the past two days, busy brought in the bucks.  But the $100 and the $20 bills weren’t worth the paper they were written on.

“It’s really bad to find something like this,” he said. “To find people who try to make some fake money.”

Hanna found out the money was counterfeit when the bank reported the bills to Columbia police.

“It looks very real for me. You can not say it’s fake or not fake. You have to check it with a pen,” he said.

Hanna would have checked the bills with a counterfeit pen but his customers were lined up.

Investigators said that’s the distraction the crook needed.

“That’s hard for me to check everything. Gonna be very bad for my business. People are gonna be late in the line,” he said.

In customer David Walls’ mind, counterfeiting is no different than shoplifting.

“I mean, I do a lot of work on the side you know stuff and if I got paid with counterfeit money, I wouldn’t know where it came from,” he said. “But I’ll tell you what. I’d be going back to see them for sure.”

“I hope the police can catch these people. Gonna find out where he’s at,” he said. “How’s he do this stuff? Because it really it looks real.”

The store clerk said the counterfeit bills had one unique feature. He said they looked faded as if they’d been washed in the laundry.

Police are analyzing the bills for any possible fingerprints or DNA to try and catch the counterfeiter.

Police said the phony money has been printed as $100, $50 and $20 bills.

In
Columbia, counterfeit money is on the rise. Over the past two weeks,
police discovered more than 20 cases of fake money. The bills are
mainly showing up at local businesses. Police want workers to be sure
and check any money received carefully by using a specially-designed
marker. They’re asking people to be careful and don’t accept money from
strangers. The bills currently circulating are hundreds, twenties,
fifties and tens. Investigators said they’re pursuing a number of leads
at this time.

A man from Lewiston got arrested last week on a felony charge for counterfeiting thousands of dollars.

LEWISTON – Since the start of spring, police and government agents have been investigating counterfeit money being passed around the city.

The investigation continued all summer, with Lewiston police and the U.S. Secret Service generating lead after lead to the origin of the funny money. As they investigated, more bogus bills turned up at local businesses.

Now, a local man is awaiting court action after he was charged with aggravated forgery, and police say more than $14,000 in bogus bills has been recovered.

Last week, 29-year-old Byron Smith of Montello Street was arrested on the felony charge. Police say Smith is responsible for thousands of dollars in counterfeit cash being distributed through local businesses.

Investigators said the fake bills were passed at corner stores, restaurants and coffee shops around the city.

They did not say what specific leads led to Smith as the primary suspect in the counterfeiting scheme. Police also implied that Smith may not have acted alone. The case remains under investigation and more arrests are likely, police said.

Smith has since posted bail and was freed from the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn.
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If you are running a Garage Sale make sure to have the counterfeit pen with you. Most people don’t bother to check small bills, but with all the counterfeit money going around it pays to be safe.

Nearly $150 worth of fake money was used to buy tickets at Festa Italiana this weekend, and now more reports of counterfeit cash are surfacing. In an attempt to make money, many people in the Stateline are actually losing money at the hands of scam artists.
Police blame the influx of fake money on the stagnant economy, and improved technology. “As far as the upgrades of computers, printers, scanners, we do see an increase,” says Sgt. JR Randall, with the Rockford Police Department’s Investigative Services Unit.
But where these bad bills are showing up, might surprise you. Counterfeiters are taking fake cash straight to your front yard. Jessica Archibald was one of many this weekend, who got scammed at her own garage sale. “I wouldn’t think I’d need to look at a fifty or even a twenty at a garage sale, but it makes a lot of sense, because no one checks for that,” she says.
Jessica says a woman bought about four dollars worth of stuff, and paid with a $50 bill, asking first if Jessica had change. “Sure, not a problem,” she told the woman. “I got change, no big deal.”
It wasn’t until after the woman left, that she realized the money didn’t look right. “It was just a little bit smaller than the other 50′s,” she says. Jessica called police and took the $50 bill to a local bank where they confirmed it was fake.
It turns out Jessica had given $46 in change, to someone who never actually paid.
“They told me she was probably just taking it around to area garage sales, that’s how they make their money,” she says.
That’s because most businesses now have UV lights and special pens that can detect fake money, so counterfeiters are left with few places to spend their illegal dough. “The smaller the place, the easier it is to pass a bill,” Randall says. He says once a phony bill is in circulation, it’s nearly impossible to trace its origin.
The special pens can be bought at office supply stores. Police say the best piece of advice they can give is to be aware of all money you get – compare its coloring, texture, and size with the cash you already have on-hand.

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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.

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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.