WITI-TV, BROWN DEER -
The secret service says the Milwaukee area is seeing an increase in counterfeit bills. This type of counterfeit could be hard to catch, if you're not looking.
Brown Deer Lanes was struck by counterfeit cash in the month of October. Joe Natoli from Brown Deer Lanes says, "It was a regular customer of ours, in the morning. And that's why nobody thought much of it at the time."
When a regular customer handed over a $100 bill, the clerk marked it with a counterfeit pen. This particular bill appeared to pass the test. Natoli says,"You can't tell just by looking at it and if you use counterfeit pens, those don't work either, because they're real bills." What appears to be a real $100 bill is actually a real five dollar bill, and the secret service says it's happening more and more around the Milwaukee area.
Kristina Schmidt of Secret Service says, "It's basically where you take a genuine $5 bill and wash off the ink with chemicals, and reprint over that with the image of a $100 bill." Which is way the Secret Service is telling retailers to not depend on the pen and rely on their eyes. For example, when this counterfeit bill is held up to the light you can clearly see Abe Lincoln's face on the watermark, instead of Ben Franklin.
Back at Brown Deer Lanes they now have a warning sheet next to every register, and it was the bank that ended up taking a loss. Natoli says, "In this case, we didn't lose out on a thing. And we learned from it, so it was good for us all the way around."
It was not a perfect game for the bank in this case, apparently the customer could prove that she'd just received the bill from her bank. The Secret Service says that's not how this usually works in most cases, it's the bank that catches the counterfeits. They also say the business usually takes a loss, which is why it's in their best interest to be vigilant.
Brown Deer Lanes was struck by counterfeit cash in the month of October. Joe Natoli from Brown Deer Lanes says, "It was a regular customer of ours, in the morning. And that's why nobody thought much of it at the time."
When a regular customer handed over a $100 bill, the clerk marked it with a counterfeit pen. This particular bill appeared to pass the test. Natoli says,"You can't tell just by looking at it and if you use counterfeit pens, those don't work either, because they're real bills." What appears to be a real $100 bill is actually a real five dollar bill, and the secret service says it's happening more and more around the Milwaukee area.
Kristina Schmidt of Secret Service says, "It's basically where you take a genuine $5 bill and wash off the ink with chemicals, and reprint over that with the image of a $100 bill." Which is way the Secret Service is telling retailers to not depend on the pen and rely on their eyes. For example, when this counterfeit bill is held up to the light you can clearly see Abe Lincoln's face on the watermark, instead of Ben Franklin.
Back at Brown Deer Lanes they now have a warning sheet next to every register, and it was the bank that ended up taking a loss. Natoli says, "In this case, we didn't lose out on a thing. And we learned from it, so it was good for us all the way around."
It was not a perfect game for the bank in this case, apparently the customer could prove that she'd just received the bill from her bank. The Secret Service says that's not how this usually works in most cases, it's the bank that catches the counterfeits. They also say the business usually takes a loss, which is why it's in their best interest to be vigilant.
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