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.

Source

This report comes straight from KLTV and advises Texas residents to be wary of the $1, 5$, 10$ and $100 bills that have been circulating in the county.

If you’ve bought or sold Notre Dame tickets from scalpers, you might want to check your money.

South Bend police say a Chicago man was given counterfeit money for his football ticket.

The man says last weekend he sold leftover Washington tickets to scalpers near Notre Dame Avenue and Angela Boulevard.

When he got back to Chicago, his bank said most of the money he deposited was counterfeit.

Police say be on the lookout during the upcoming USC game since they expect a high turnout of scalpers.

If you’ve received counterfeit money from a scalper, call Crime Stoppers or South Bend police at 235-9201.

Source

Even for people running an illegal business, it would be a good to idea for them to have a counterfeit detector. You normally wouldn’t think that scalpers run into these problems with counterfeit money, but we see from this news report that it could definitely happen .

Although I would strongly recommend that you keep your business safe and legal!

It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book, and people are getting downright tired of it.

Merchants in downtown Vancouver’s Yaletown neighbourhood say they’re seeing a sharp increase in counterfeit bills — and some businesses are taking matters into their own hands.

At the Salsa & Agave Mexican Grill, business is booming, which makes it harder for staff to spend time inspecting for counterfeit money.

“These people know what they are doing,” owner Juan Contreras told CTV News. “Right in the middle of the rush when we have many people waiting in the lines waiting for change is when we have to catch those bills.”

Ursala Mayne, owner of The Raging Bean, may not look it, but she’s a one-woman fraud fighter.

When a customer tried to pay for a coffee with an obviously fake $20-bill, Mayne refused.

“We ended up giving it back to him,” she said. “As he walked out, it kind of bothered me that I gave it back.”

So Mayne followed him to a neighbouring store — where he was trying to use the fake bill a second time.

“As he was presenting the bill, I grabbed it from him and I said, “This isn’t real!” Mayne said. “And I kept it.”

Her employees are now being more diligent inspecting for frauds. Mayne says an easy way to test a bill is to rub it on a piece of blank paper. A real bill will leave ink — a fake one will not.

ctv

In this economy you cannot afford to be left with fake money. One of our goals with this blog is to help raise counterfeit money awareness and keep the fight going against the counterfeiters who are trying to scam people in businesses or otherwise. If you take a look at the posts throughout this blog, you can see a huge trend that is going on in the United States with fake money.

Counterfeit bills have been appearing anywhere from lemonade stands and school cafeteria’s to the North Korean general and huge factories/counterfeit money operations. Just last year the Secret Service took $103 million in counterfeit money out of circulation in the United States and the general public is usually the ones left with this money, unaware that they have it.

It is highly recommended that you get something to keep yourself safe from the counterfeit money that is circulating around the world. There are many great options to choose from such as the ultra violet light, counterfeit pen, or a top quality counterfeit detecting machine.

Don’t get stuck with fake bills! Help spread counterfeit money awareness and keep your money safe.

CLEARWATER – A Safety Harbor man was arrested Tuesday on charges he enlisted a woman to cash 28 counterfeit money orders.

The charges against Raul Francisco Zelaya, 50, include scheme to defraud a financial institution, communications fraud and possession of 10 or more counterfeit checks.

The woman said that on Sept. 10, an acquaintance – identified by police as Zelaya – tried to get her to cash 28 bogus Western Union money orders, Clearwater police said. The two met at a Dunkin’ Donuts on Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard, where he gave her the money orders, valued at $850 each, and asked her to cash them so they could not be traced back to him, police said.

The woman, however, called police.

After she handed the money orders to police, investigators linked Zelaya to another incident in which he cashed a bogus U.S. Postal Service money order for $989.50 at a Greyhound bus station on Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard, police said.

On Tuesday, when investigators arrested Zelaya, they found he had an additional 243 counterfeit money orders, police said. The total value was more than $230,000.

Zelaya obtained the fraudulent checks from an online check-cashing scam. These scams commonly appear online as “work from home” job opportunities and can be posted on Web sites or appear in spam e-mail.

The “company” asks people to cash checks or money orders, keep a portion and return the remainder of the money to the “company.” If a person is caught cashing a fraudulent check stemming from this type of scam, they are informed that this activity is illegal. If they continue to attempt to cash fraudulent checks or money orders, they are charged criminally.

Zelaya had previously taken part in the same type of scheme in a case handled by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, Clearwater police said.

suncoast news

HOUSTON — The United States Secret Service says $103 million in counterfeit bills were taken out of circulation last year. Surprisingly, it’s not the people who created the fake bills who are passing them along, but the general public.
In Houston, businesses and law enforcement agencies are trying to keep up with the onslaught of bogus cash. In fact, after reviewing two months of Harris County records, 11 News learned that nearly every day somebody in our community is charged with attempting to pass counterfeit money.

One of these alleged counterfeiters was Paul Thomas. Police say he knowingly tried to buy something with a fake $100 bill.

Thomas isn’t the only one going to jail. Clement Porter was sentenced to three years after trying to pass a counterfeit $10 bill. He has a lengthy criminal history.

But despite all the arrests, fighting this crime is especially difficult because most of the fake money is not passed on by criminals, but by everyday people who have no idea the money in their wallet is counterfeit.

Some people and businesses are worried about receiving phony money. They are arming themselves with counterfeit money detector pens. If the bill is fake, the pen will leave a permanent dark mark.

However, these pens are not foolproof. In some cases, innocent people, like Valarie Phillips and her husband, Clyde, have been arrested and briefly taken to jail.
Last month, the couple says they withdrew $300 from an ATM on Tidwell. But when Valerie tried to pay her cable bill with the money, Comcast used the pen and told her the bills were counterfeit.

Valarie and her husband went back to where they had withdrawn the cash. However, the clerk wouldn’t reimburse them, so they called police.

“I hope no one else is going through this, but if they are, I feel their pain,” said Clyde Phillips.

After the ordeal, a bank determined the $300, which was dispensed in $20 bills, was not counterfeit. In other words, the counterfeit pen didn’t work the way it should have.

But that’s only part of the problem. HPD says counterfeiters have found a way to beat the ink detector, as well as laser machines that are supposedly more accurate.

They are doing it by turning $5 bills into $50. The U.S. Secret Service says the criminals are washing the old ink off the bills and then reprinting them.

It says the best way to keep from getting ripped off or going to jail is to examine each bill closely. Most consumers just don’t have the time, which is something the crooks are banking on.

khou.com

In just one year the Secret Service took $103,000,000 in fake money out of circulation last year. Who knows how much more counterfeit money is being used in the United States or globally? Don’t rely on the Government or Secret Service to protect you from the fake bills.

Help the fight against counterfeit money with a counterfeit detector. There simply isn’t a better way to insure that the money, you or your business are dealing with is real.

Indianapolis – The United States Secret Service is issuing a warning to Hoosiers after some local vendors lost hundreds of dollars at O’Reilly Raceway Park. The Secret Service says merchants at the drag races were the latest victims of a new kind of counterfeit money. The bills resemble the real thing very closely, but there is one way you can tell the difference.

Eyewitness News was shown a stack of hundred-dollar bills. They all looked real to us. We took time to examine them and even held them up to the light. We were wrong – and so were all the vendors who accepted them at the drag races last weekend.

“Now they’re out that hundred dollars,” said Andy Cecere, US Secret Service.

The Secret Service says this new wave of counterfeit currency is fooling even the most conscientious merchants who know what to look for.

If you hold a genuine $100 bill up to the light, you’ll see a dark security strip running vertically to the left of Benjamin Franklin. To his right, you’ll see a watermark of his portrait.

The counterfeit bills also have a security thread, but they have a watermark portrait of Abraham Lincoln, not Ben Franklin. Another red flag is coming across two bills with the same serial number.

“What they’re doing is they’re taking a $5 bill, genuine, and taking a solution and removing the ink from it and then going to an ink jet process or color copier and printing a $100 portrait on the front.

Special agents say counterfeiters are taking advantage of the big events in this area like the races and the state fair, where big crowds and long lines pressure vendors to rush.

“The merchants trying to make a living are in a hurry to get people through and they’ll just readily accept it,” said Cecere.

The Secret Service says in most cases, the buck stops at the bank, where each bill that’s deposited is scanned for authenticity. Any bill that comes back bad is deducted from the deposit. That’s why they’re asking vendors to protect their own profits and to check the cash they’re handed and help them catch the culprits.

“What we tell merchants to do is we would never tell anybody to physically restrain a person that they suspect of passing counterfeit currency. Just become a good witness. Get a description, a license plate if they have a vehicle. A lot of times that’s how we get back to the offender,” said Cecere.

The Secret Service says anyone caught manufacturing or passing counterfeit money faces a minimum 15-year sentence in federal prison.

Know your money – Find out how to detect fake bills.

eyewitness news

This is an unusual report, even as someone that regularly keeps up with all the counterfeit money news.

By Jessie Burchette

jburchette@salisburypost.com

A 12-year-old student at Southeast Middle School, 1570 Peeler Road, raised eyebrows when she tried to pay for lunch with a $100 bill.

The girl wanted to apply the $100 to her lunch account although she is part of the free or reduced lunch program.

School officials opted to take a good look at the bill.

Assistant Principal Chris Boylan said the $100 bill looked a lot like the real thing.

School officials called the Rowan Sheriff’s Office. Investigators quickly determined it was a fake.

Capt. John Sifford said the girl told school officials and officers that she found the $100 bill in the Walmart parking lot in Cooleemee.

“There is no Walmart in Cooleemee,” Sifford said Wednesday.

The girl also told officials that her mother looked at the bill and told her that it wasn’t real.

But the girl thought it was real and decided to take it to school.

“She is 12 years old, maybe she’s just naive,” Sifford said, adding she will likely be referred to juvenile services.

Both the Sheriff’s Office and the Salisbury Police have received several reports from businesses recently regarding counterfeit $100 and $20 bills.

Sifford noted this is not the first time a student has had counterfeit money on school property.

He recalled an incident during the past couple of years in which a student started giving away a roll of $20 bills on a bus, creating an incident.

Authorities in East Spencer responded and determined the money was counterfeit.

The student told authorities he had found it in a parking lot.
source

Johannesburg – A couple was arrested for allegedly possessing counterfeit money in East London, Eastern Cape police said on Monday.

Police spokesperson Mtati Tana said: A man went to the police on Sunday afternoon to report a matter of counterfeit money.

“He explained that a woman had come to his shop and purchased liquor and meat worth R300 with fake money.”

Police went to the woman’s house at East Bank Squatter Camp.

“When they arrived, they met the woman who fully co-operated with them and led them to the shack where there was more counterfeit money. The police found 26 fake R50 notes and a fake R100 note.”

He said the woman told police her boyfriend had given her the money.

The police found the boyfriend in a tavern drinking with friends.

“When the police searched him, they found a R50 note that was also fake.

“The couple was arrested and detained at Buffalo Flats police station.”

- SAPA

source

The report didn’t say what their sentence is , but they are probably not going to cut off easy. Don’t end up like this couple. Protect your cash with a counterfeit detecting product.