At one time, a counterfeiter needed certain skills to produce a phony but genuine-looking $20 bill.

Now, it only takes a high-end computer printer and a few minutes.

The changing technology, police said, allowed two college roommates, still teenagers, to print off a few fake $20s and exchange them for real cash at four hotels on Peach Street near Interstate 90 on Sept. 13.

On Sept. 28, police said, a group of still-unidentified suspects paid for $400 worth of merchandise with counterfeit bills they passed at Lowe’s on Keystone Drive. Police said a woman on Sept. 28 also left counterfeit $20 bills behind at the nearby Wal-Mart.

The local cases show counterfeit money still is in circulation, despite the recent changes to currency designed to make fake bills easier to spot. Continue Reading »

“He said he was standing there watching and it turned blacker than hell,” Laws said. “He immediately called me and asked where I got it, and I told him the only place I get $100 bills if from my bank.”

“…with the upcoming Christmas shopping season approaching, she said bank employees already have met to discuss watching out for an increase in fake cash.”

“A lot of counterfeit money is being passed in flea markets and yard sales,” Clark said. “Most people are not afraid to try those because most people don’t have one of those pens. But it happens everywhere. It slides through. You can get it from banks, you can get it from fast food places, you can get it anywhere.”

“Houck also recommended investing in a counterfeit detection pen.”
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Bloomington, Ind. - Counterfeit money is being passed off as the real thing at Indiana University.

University police say two suspects paid for food in the student union with fake 50 dollar bills.

Police say the man and the woman are about college age, but they don’t think they are I.U. students.

Sugar and Spice employee Delaiah Dupree has to mark every 20 and 50 dollar bill with a special marker that’s designed to detect counterfeit cash.
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A recent surge in counterfeit money in the Nogales has area merchants looking closely at the greenbacks they accept from customers.

Officers from the Nogales Police Department confiscated the notes, which will be forwarded to the U. S. Treasury Department. NPD spokesman Lt. Octavio Gradillas said that no arrests have been made because the parties involved were unaware they were passing money that might be considered spurious.

“It’s not to the point where we feel it’s something specific that is going on, like someone is counterfeiting and passing bills out,” said Gradillas. He said that while the holidays are the usual times that his department sees surges in counterfeit bills, reports of two or three counterfeit bills discovered in a single day are not unheard of.

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