Counterfeit Money: Flood of Fake $100’s Hits East Coast

Ever since this past winter, we have been hearing from all sorts of businesses that the East Coast of the U.S. has been getting "slammed" with counterfeit money, including new $100 bills.

Without mentioning any specific business names, we've been told by drug stores, grocers and department stores that there's been a huge increase in the frequency and volume of counterfeit notes.

Law enforcement agencies have determined that a very large-scale, off-shore operation (or operations), most likely located in Peru, has been washing $1 & $5 banknotes and printing them into $50 and $100 banknotes.

Just type in "Counterfeit $100" into a Google News search and you can see the local news outlets reporting the events, from Miami right on up to through New York City (where over $250,000 was seized in one bust in May) and further north into New England. Common to this trail of counterfeit has been the use of lower denomination $1 and $5 notes as "paper stock" to print the fake money onto. As we have discussed on many prior occasions, this is one of the reasons why the "Currency Marker Pens" don't work, because all they do is test the paper, and they cannot detect these "washed notes" at all.

Fraud Fighter Products WILL detect washed notes! If you are using our UV counterfeit detection devices, be sure that the correct color and location of the fluorescent strip is there. Washed $5 notes will typically have a blue fluorescent stripe, which is INCORRECT for either the $50 or the $100 note. $1 bills have NO FLUORESCENT STRIPE.

If you are using the FF-1000, this device will certainly detect that the notes are not $50's and $100's, although - if VERY cleverly washed, they may still read as $1 or $5 notes.