How often do you run into counterfeit money?

[MoneyFunnel]

I was playing at Commerce the other day and was running well and I had a lot of people buying chips from me (which they allow at Commerce). I got to thinking that the money came from a person and not the casino. Do I need to worry about counterfeits? Any one run into this problem? If so what happened? Is it something people with tons of $100 bills think about?

Thanks

[Bulbarainey]

i would check the stripe, not too long ago my friend was paid a fake $100 for some things, if you looked carefully it was was obvious it was a fake... check the feeling of the paper, dont accept old 100's, and look for the stripe in the light

[Wake up CALL]

[ QUOTE ]
dont accept old 100's

[/ QUOTE ]

What???????

[Jeffage]

Old hundreds are more likely to be counterfeit than the new, bigger faced bills that have more security protections.

New Hundreds: Hold to the light, look for reflections of Ben's Face and strip that says "USA Hundred USA Hundred". Make sure serial numbers match.

Old Hundreds: Later ones will have the strip. Older ones have no strip. You can take an old one if you see the "USA 100" strip. If you don't, even though it may be legit, I would NOT take it.

Also, to the OP, you are just as likely to get a fake bill from the cashier as you are another player - bills are rarely scrutinized unless they are OBVIOUS fakes.

Jeff

[Bremen]

[ QUOTE ]
What???????

[/ QUOTE ]
Older ones are easier to counterfeit.

[Overdrive]

If you sell chips often it may be worth your piece of mind to buy one of those little pens you can use to write on currency that will tell you if it is fake or not.

I just heard a news report on how the North Koreans, and Iranians among others are supposedly pumping out billions of dollars worth of nearly perfect US currency, so the pen might not help you if you get one of those of course. But you could still spend that kind of bill too I guess lol.

The next thing on the horizon is that the US is going to eventually embed RFID chips into all currency, this supposedly would be virtually impossible to counterfeit because there would be readers that could read the RFID chips and tell everything about the bill from where it was produced to telling if it was a real bill or a fake bill from North Korea or whatever.

[lapoker17]

dude - i play at commerce a lot and sell chips etc. i have never received a counterfeit bill - it is not something i would worry about. also, if you start holding peoples' bills up to the light or using one of those pens, they will hate you and think you are a dbag.

[brick]

If you find a counterfit bill you'd get to be part of a cool FBI investigation. That would be sweet.

[CrashPat]

Once I think I did in november. I changed it for chips and never thought about it again until just now. It was an odd color of green and did not have the strip in it, it was also an old bill, I did not look at it much. I think it was in my possession for all of 20 minutes.

[PokerCad]

BEWARE,,,Just ask Jose, the chip runner at the Commerce 9-18, he took a bill and did not properly check it, it was bad and he had to pay for it out of his pocket. this happened within the last month or so,,,,,,maybe I'm extreme but I always use caution

[onegymrat]

[ QUOTE ]
If you find a counterfit bill you'd get to be part of a cool FBI investigation. That would be sweet.

[/ QUOTE ]I believe it's the U.S. Secret Service that tracks these, unless the FBI checks it out first, and then tosses it to them. Also, did you forget that to be part of the "cool" investigation, it would cost you $100?

[AngusThermopyle]

Someone been watching "To Live and Die in L.A."?

[onegymrat]

[ QUOTE ]
Someone been watching "To Live and Die in L.A."?

[/ QUOTE ] No, but I will now!

I thought it was common knowledge that the Secret Service is responsible for keeping track of counterfeiters.

[mmcd]

[ QUOTE ]


New Hundreds: Hold to the light, look for reflections of Ben's Face and strip that says "USA Hundred USA Hundred". Make sure serial numbers match.

Old Hundreds: Later ones will have the strip. Older ones have no strip. You can take an old one if you see the "USA 100" strip.


[/ QUOTE ]

Do you really bother doing all this if someone is buying 1-2k in chips from you? Personally, (although I don't play live much) I've never been too concerned about this, because if they're good enough to get by me at a glance, they're probably good enough for me to get rid of them really easily, since most banks or cages I've been to just count them out real quick without bothering to examine them.

[Annorax]

[ QUOTE ]
Once I think I did in november. I changed it for chips and never thought about it again until just now. It was an odd color of green and did not have the strip in it, it was also an old bill, I did not look at it much. I think it was in my possession for all of 20 minutes.

[/ QUOTE ]

Some of the really old ones used a different (and IMO better looking) shade of green on the back. This in and of itself doesn't mean it's fake... especially if it's from like 1940.

[pa3lsvt]

I worked nights in a 7-11 for 2 years. We got at least a half dozen fakes over that time, mostly passed to new employees and mostly $10s.

Besides the newfangled light tricks (watermark, strip, colors) on new bills and detector pens, nothing feels like money like money. This is especially true for people who handle money regularly.

I laugh every time I have a bill checked and think back to the only time I had one handed to me - 2 days before I quit because I found a real job again: Guy hands me a $10 for cheap smokes, I take it from him and rub it lightly between my fingers (like every bill I handled). I throw it on the counter and say, "Got a real one of those?" He looks down, mumbles, and pulls a real $10 out. No pen needed - heck, I didn't even need to look at it.

[DrPublo]

[ QUOTE ]
If you sell chips often it may be worth your piece of mind to buy one of those little pens you can use to write on currency that will tell you if it is fake or not.


[/ QUOTE ]

Those pens are garbage. They just test for starch, and the paper US currency is printed on has a good amount of starch in it. Feeling curious? Take a fresh onion, cut it open, and rub it against a piece of loose leaf paper. Now test it with the pen.

Still like those pens?

The Doc

[MoneyFunnel]

Yea I worked at Disneyland when I was younger and saw a few and noticed them right away. I guess I just thought fakes were getting better now.

Thanks for the info and the stories. I won't worry about it. I guess if I get one that is fake and I don't realize it the cage won't either.

[AngusThermopyle]

If you are really worried, call a chip runner over and buy $100 chips. He will know better than you if the bill looks funny, and the guy who gave you the bill will be right at the table with you.

[imitation]

I can't believe that a bank or someone who works in the cage wouldn't instantly spot a fake bill...surely they'd be trained for it. My gf who works as a cashier and handles alot of money can instantly spot just from feel fake money from USA, HK, Canada and China. She also tells me that most of the fake USD is from Russia still or atleast that's what the Chinese Government is saying. In China fake money is everywhere, they even fake down as low as 1RMB which is about 12.5 US cents. But mostly there are a lot of 50, 20 and 10 notes flying around, mostly passed amongst taxi drivers and back to them.

[Banks2334]

I've seen two guys this year at Hollywood Park(not surprising) get caught. The one guy didn't know it was a fake and he was let go(he was a regular), while the other guy turned pale as security came over to the table. He tried to go to the restroom and instead got escorted into the security room.

[TheMetetron]

Fakes are not as prevelant as people think.

If at first glance/feel it seems right, it 99.9% of the time is.

There are very few fakes that are good, I saw one in an entire two years of loss prevention at a theme park and department store that took more than 1 second to spot.

Even bad fakes are rare... very few people are dumb enough to attmept to pass them.

Basically, if it seems ok (like you don't notice anything counting it down), then don't worry.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

I've handled an awful lot of $100s and I have never found a counterfeit one. Most of the ones in circulation today have the stripe inside, and that's pretty hard to fake. Add in the counterfeit detector pen, and a little dilligence on the part of everyone involved in the casino, and very few will slip through. Not saying that counterfeits don't exist, but I wouldn't be too worried about it. It'd probably be easier to counterfeit a $20 these days than a $100, but even then, all the new money is pretty high tech and hard to duplicate.

al

[deadbody]

I spent 3 years working for a bank as a glorified Teller (I was a manager but that didn't mean much there), and we got fakes about once a month (I worked in the ghetto) but we could alwys tell pretty easily. Feel is most important, and look. You will be able to tell a fake right away.

And trust me the secret service investigation is not that cool. The local cops come and take the note or you just mail it in. Unless you get caught trying to pass it, then you go to jail most likely.

[_TKO_]

Real money burns black.

[talentdeficit]

a few of my friends have a promotions company that does mostly nights at local clubs. they get 2-3 fakes every single event.

[Mr.K]

[ QUOTE ]
dude - i play at commerce a lot and sell chips etc. i have never received a counterfeit bill - it is not something i would worry about. also, if you start holding peoples' bills up to the light or using one of those pens, they will hate you and think you are a dbag.

[/ QUOTE ]

Dude, I don't think you get it. If there is even a 1% of someone passing you a counterfeit bill, then you're giving up $1 ever time you sell $100 in chips, for nothing of value in return (e.g. you do not benefit by selling chips to another player instead of racking them up and taking them to the cashier, which is much more of a trusted agent). Why shoulder this unnecessary risk, even if it is small?

[Tony_P]

The following is from years of cash management experience:

1. Those "conterfeit pens" are 100% worthless. They give both false positives to good conterfeits and false negatives to older bills.

2. Never rely on the "hidden face" on new bills, it is the easiest security feature to forge.

How to examine bills:

New Bills: Check the strip, it shoud say USA 100 over and over and be reflective. MAKE SURE IT SAYS "USA 100". Good counterfeit $100 bills have strips removed from $20's.

New and most old Bills: Run your fingernail over the shirt on Ben Frankin's portrait. If you feel the ridges, you can be certain it is legit.

All bills: Look carefully at a blank part of the paper. The paper should not have the "smooth" quality that copier paper has. There should be small red and blue threads interlaced into the paper.

To quickly check bills, give each on the fingernail test, if any don't make it, check for the threads.

[lefty rosen]

I have gotten a fake 10 from the cashier(on the Canadian side at Niagara), when I went to use it a variety store the owner gave me a beedy eyed look and said it was a fake. I then went and took it to the automatic machine at the subway it was rejected I then took it to the bank and they tested it and said it was fake. Old Canadian tens were mass counterfeited by motorcycle gangs and donkeys with printers.......

[TomBrooks]

I got a five dollar bill once that looked a little shakey. I wasn't sure if it was good or bad and I studied it for a long time. Some others who looked at it weren't sure one way or the other either, but were leaning towards it being a fake. Eventually, I was pretty sure it was fake. I just spent at a gas station where it was one of several bills I handed over at the same time.

[TStoneMBD]

i wouldnt recommend that you sell chips at the poker table. from my understanding, there are quite a few counterfeit bills that flow to casinos. its so easy to get away with spending counterfeit bills, especially when youre passing off several to a guy who is selling you chips. from turningstone, i have heard quite a few stories of people getting counterfeit bills from the cashier. 1 guy got a counterfeit bill from the casino and tried to spend it in the casino. they had some authorities investigate him like a criminal. the old 100s are far more likely to be fake then the new ones. as a habit, when the cashiers at turningstone handed me old 100s id hand them back and ask them for new ones instead. ive been told by dealers that the casinos get several counterfeit bills at the table games. people plop down a stack of 100s at a blackjack table with 1 counterfeit and easily get away with it. however, dont ever trust a dealer. theyre professional liars who deal cards on the side. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Sponger.]

[ QUOTE ]
they will hate you and think you are a dbag.

[/ QUOTE ]

People hating each other.... at commerce? Get right out of town!

[Nomad84]

[ QUOTE ]
All bills: Look carefully at a blank part of the paper. The paper should not have the "smooth" quality that copier paper has. There should be small red and blue threads interlaced into the paper.

[/ QUOTE ]

I usually look for these threads and the color-shifting ink on the numbers. Of course, I rarely have occasion to check.