In Fayetteville, counterfeit money could affect the way you shop
FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina (WTVD) -- Police say quite a bit of counterfeit cash is making its way across Fayetteville.
It may be "funny money" but there isn't anything funny when local businesses won't take your cash.
Some stores are already taking such measures.
At a Fayetteville Dunkin' Donuts, a counterfeit $10 bill was passed through the drive-thru window.
"Obviously in the middle of rush you can't really look at everything right away, then and there, cause you are busy," said shift manager Ryan Tolbert. "So as we were counting the money down, you could take two ten-dollar bills and compare the two, you could see the one was a fake."
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Fayetteville Police are warning people to be on the lookout for the counterfeit money.
"And it's a high-quality bill that's being passed," said Lt. Todd Joyce with the Fayetteville PD. "And a lot of these businesses, it's undetected at that point of sale where it goes to a bank or maybe even to a Federal Deposit."
Secret Service Resident Agent Robert Trumbo says counterfeit money circulates at different times throughout the year.
"This, for instance, is one of the bleached notes that the ink is all counterfeit, but the paper is genuine," Trumbo said, holding up a sample.
Federal agents say counterfeiting is a crime of opportunity. They say counterfeiters like to pass their bad money during a store's busiest time of the day when employees don't pay close attention to money exchanges.
Police warn that fake $100, $50 and $20 bills are frequently passed off. A Secret Service flier shows how to tell whether a bill is genuine.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW OR DOWNLOAD THE SECRET SERVICE GUIDE (.pdf)
Business owners are warned to carefully check customers' cash, and call police if the bills look suspicious.
Taking the time to check the money is the key to not getting burned.
"As of now, we got counterfeit pens, so if we get 20s or larger than a 5, we will mark it to see if it's counterfeit or not," Tolbert said.
