ATTN Fanime attendees, beware of counterfit money

[abcbadcat]

I sold something on on Craigslist for $200 and received three $50 bills, one $20 bill, and three $10 bills. The $10 bills are fine but the other $170 is fake.

The fake bills lack watermarks but look nearly identical to the real thing.

I received no email from the person, I was called by a restricted number every time we talked, and I didn't get a look at her car either.

I called the police and an officer came by and I filed a police report.


Who knows where/when/if fake money could be circulated at Fanime but it is possible. So please check your money if you sell at the swap meet or anywhere else in/around the con.

Just a word of warning and I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else.

[PyronIkari]

I sold something on on Craigslist for $200 and received three $50 bills, one $20 bill, and three $10 bills. The $10 bills are fine but the other $170 is fake.

The fake bills lack watermarks but look nearly identical to the real thing.

I received no email from the person, I was called by a restricted number every time we talked, and I didn't get a look at her car either.

I called the police and an officer came by and I filed a police report.


Who knows where/when/if fake money could be circulated at Fanime but it is possible. So please check your money if you sell at the swap meet or anywhere else in/around the con.

Just a word of warning and I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else.

You couldn't tell from the texture? Unless they did a bleaching method, the texture is near impossible to recreate. In general though, the bleaching method also falls short because most of the time you can tell by looking.

Dunno, I worked in retail and the counterfeit money attempts I easily saw through(3) just by actually looking at the money when took it from them and counted it.

[jinnai_animexcalibur]

Money that I'm bringing is straight from the casinos. They do not take fake bills lightly AT ALL.  :)

[Knightfire]

Hold it up to the light, not only should you see the water mark, but also a serial strip embeded on the left side of the bill. Additionally, Office Depot sells those pens to check authenticty of money, but your locally bank can give one to you if you ask them how to check for counterfiets. :)

[G.I.R]

Hold it up to the light, not only should you see the water mark, but also a serial strip embeded on the left side of the bill.

Also, make sure the lettering on the embedded strip matches the value of the bill (i.e. strip will say "TWENTY" on a $20 dollar bill)  This assures that someone didn't take a lower denomination bill, wash the paper, and print a counterfeit note on it.

[BlueCharisma]

Also the number of the bill (ie: 10 on the botton right hand side) will change color/shade in sunlight. This only works on $10 bills and up.

[Saeko]

Oh, my sister got fake money, sort of.
She bought something from that goth/visualkei dealer. She got all her change back when she paid, but when we looked at one of the 'dimes' they gave us, it was actually some kind of silver chinese coin? xD
I forgot what it was called... Yuan or something? Idk. It was weird, but we kept it anyways.

It's not actually fake, but it's still not USD... So... yeah. :]

[Piichuu]

xD
Someone I know got handed back half of a torn dollar bill in change during Fanime. Not really counterfeit I guess, but it was still useless.

[/size]

[M]

Oh, my sister got fake money, sort of.
She bought something from that goth/visualkei dealer. She got all her change back when she paid, but when we looked at one of the 'dimes' they gave us, it was actually some kind of silver chinese coin? xD
I forgot what it was called... Yuan or something? Idk. It was weird, but we kept it anyways.

It's not actually fake, but it's still not USD... So... yeah. :]

This is kinda common. Most cashiers won't notice the difference between those coins and the US coins. It sucks when it happens though. :/

xD
Someone I know got handed back half of a torn dollar bill in change during Fanime. Not really counterfeit I guess, but it was still useless.

[/size]

If you really wanted to, you could always go get it replaced.*

[*http://ask.yahoo.com/20020110.html]

[Piichuu]

I'm pretty sure that doesn't work when you only have one half of the dollar. You have to have both halves.

[ewu]

banks ask for more than 50% of the bill....odds are it will not be right in half, so only the larger side can still be redeemed as mutilated money

to be legal tender, a bill must have at least 1 and one half of the 2 serial numbers to still be considered legal tender. So, more than 1/4 of the bill missing (on one side) will make it no longer viable.

[Lucifargundam]

Off topic but relevant to US currency::
If anyone here has American currency predating the 1930's, please I.M. me or email me at lucifargundam at yahoo dot com. I buy.