How to spot counterfeit money | personal finance

Cash isn’t as popular as it used to be, but that hasn’t put counterfeiters out of business. A 2020 survey cited in a recent Federal Reserve Report showed that it showed that American consumers used cash for only 19% of their transactions. It’s harder to find real statistics showing how much cash is fake. The figure often circulated on the Internet is $70 million, but that’s based on a 2006 report from the US Treasury Department.

Still, it is common to hear local news about fake money. For example, at the beginning of this yearA Home Depot worker was arrested for stealing $387,500 from the company over four years by taking real money and exchanging it for counterfeit bills.

If you’d like to learn more about spotting counterfeit money, here’s a look at what your cash should look like.

Features to pay attention to:

This observation is based on gut instinct.
“Most counterfeits are identified by the feel of the paper,” says L. Burke Files, president of Financial Examinations & Evaluations, a Tempe, Arizona-based research, risk management and other consulting firm.

In general, counterfeit money “doesn’t have the crisp money feel or the raised feel of black ink on the front of the bill,” he says.

Files, who has been a financial investigator for 30 years, says counterfeit money is a problem in every country and around the world. He also says that, sadly, quite a few business owners seem to accept, and pass on, counterfeit dollars knowing they are fake. Oftentimes, when a business owner or consumer turns over counterfeit money to the authorities, they are not reimbursed for that bill.

“As one person told me, it only goes bad when someone doesn’t take it,” says Files. Another tip when you feel the texture of the bill: try to tell if the ink is lifting.

“The genuine coin has slightly raised ink. So you should be able to feel the texture of the ink,” says Rita Mkrtchyan, senior finance and litigation defense attorney at Oak View Law Group with offices in Florida and California. She has advised many clients, often service industry start-ups, on how to avoid losses, including detecting counterfeit US currency.

Features to pay attention to:

The paper money you have must change color.
“One of the easiest ways to spot a counterfeit bill is to see if the bottom right corner of the bill has ink that changes color,” says Austin Fain, owner of Perfect Steel Solutions, a roofing contractor in Fort Wayne, Indiana. . Fain says most of the company’s transactions are done in cash, and since those cash transactions are often a considerable amount, he and his employees have become amateur cash experts.

“For all bills except the new $5 bill, you can tilt it back and forth and if the number in the bottom right corner doesn’t change from green to black or gold to green, then you most likely have me. delivered a counterfeit bill,” says Fain.

Features to pay attention to:

“The watermark is a hallmark of an authentic banknote,” says Fain. “On some bills it is a replica of the face of the bill and on others it may simply be an oval stain. If you hold the bill up to the light, the watermarks should be visible on the right side of the bill. Make sure that if the watermark is a replica of the face, it matches the face exactly.”
Fain adds that if you hold the bill up to the light and there is no watermark, or if you can see the watermark even without holding it up to the light, then the bill in your hand is probably a counterfeit.

Features to pay attention to:

“One of the most difficult aspects of a genuine banknote for counterfeiters to reproduce is the embossing,” says Fain. “To spot it, all you need to do is run your fingernail slowly and carefully across the note. You will feel the resistance of the note and some vibrations in the nail from the ridges of the raised print.”
If you don’t feel the vibration or resistance, that’s where Fain suggests you double check that watermark and look for color-shifting ink.

Features to pay attention to:

You’ve probably heard that before, but what are you looking for? Mkrtchyan says counterfeit bills can have serial numbers that aren’t evenly spaced or perfectly lined up in a row.
“Also, if you received multiple suspicious invoices, check to see if the serial numbers are the same on both invoices. Clearly, if they are the same, then they are fake,” says Mkrtchyan.

Features to pay attention to:

We think of paper money as paper, but it’s actually made of cotton and linen, and that allows the US Treasury to do some cool things with “paper.”
“All US bills have tiny red and blue fibers embedded in the paper,” says Mkrtchyan. “The red and blue lines should not be printed or drawn, as is common on counterfeit currency, but should be part of the paper itself.”

Features to pay attention to:

There is a lot that it takes to make money that we probably all take for granted. Mkrtchyan suggests looking for the strip of plastic that runs from top to bottom of the bill.
“The print will say ‘USA’ followed by the denomination of the bill, which is spelled out for the $5, $10 and $20 bills but is presented in numbers on the $50 and $100 bills,” she says.

The $1 and $2 do not have these plastic strips. Apparently there is not much of a counterfeiting problem with those bills.

“These threads are placed in different places on each denomination to prevent lower denomination bills from being laundered and reprinted as higher denominations. So you have to compare bills of the same denomination to detect the same strip location,” says Mkrtchyan.

Features to pay attention to:

You will need to use a magnifying glass to look for microprinting. Files suggests looking at the Benjamin Franklin necklace on the $100 bill. If you have a $50 bill, look at Grant’s necklace. Look under the treasurer’s signature on the $20 bill, and on the $5 bill, Files suggests looking at the eagle shield. In these places, you will find phrases like “United States of America”, “EE.UU.” or “E. pluribus unum”.
It’s no secret that these words appear on banknotes, but microprinting is difficult for counterfeiters to duplicate.

It does not hurt to use special tools to detect fake money, but, as you have read, you do not need them.

There’s the AccuBANKER Cash + Card Counterfeit Detector, currently $64.99 on Amazon. It offers features to help employees determine if they are looking for real or fake cash, as well as a real or fake credit card, based on the product description. It has LED lights and a built-in ruler to check bill dimensions, among other features.

There are many other counterfeit detector machines where you put money into the machine and it will determine if it is counterfeit or not. Prices vary enormously. You can find them for less than $100, but there are many options that cost much more.

There are also counterfeit pens, often in packs of 5 for $10, that claim to find counterfeit bills. In theory, if you write on the money, you’ll see gold ink if the bill is good and black ink if it’s bad. However, you’ll find mixed reviews on products like that, as these pens don’t seem to work as well if you find a sophisticated and very well-made counterfeit.

You can also find ultraviolet flashlights on Amazon and at home improvement and hardware stores, among other places.

“Place a bill on a white sheet of bond paper and shine your UV flashlight on both,” says Files. “Paper will light up nice and bright, but real currency won’t. Additionally, the denomination strings will glow a different color for each denomination except $1. Blue for $5, Orange for $10, Green for $20, Yellow for $50, and Red for $100.

The US Department of the Treasury has some suggestions on their website, as do credit unions and banks. Some of the tips you will find include the following: