Making bail with funny money complicates legal matters

I guess the moral of this story is that it's probably not a good idea to push matters after you've been arrested.

A Long Island man (Cyheam Forney) was arrested for driving on a suspended license, which is a misdemeanor. While attempting to make bail, he tried to pay with a counterfeit $50 bill.

The AP reports what occurred at this point:

Forney was arrested on a misdemeanor suspended license charge — until officers said he proffered the counterfeit currency as bail money. He was being held early Friday on a felony charge of possessing a forged instrument.

According to the AP, Mr. Forney could not be located for comment. Given that he is hard to locate -- drives on suspended licenses then tries to pay bail with funny money -- I wonder if he will appear on his designated court date?

With advancements in printer technology, counterfeit money has become a serious problem. This is the primary reason the U.S. Treasury has been issuing new series of bills with security features designed to make our currency harder to counterfeit.

If you want to learn how to tell good money from bad, the United States Secret Service has an excellent page on it. Additionally, more information (including training materials) can be obtained free of charge at moneyfactory.gov.

AP Story, here.

My last post on funny money also had a unusual, if not sick twist:

Girl Scouts get scammed with fake $100 bill

Girl Scouts get scammed with fake $100 bill

(Courtesy of the Pasco County, Florida Sheriff's website)

If you are like me, you've already bought too many cookies from the Girl Scouts. Everywhere I go, there is a table selling them and it's hard for me to say no to them.

After all, supporting organizations like the Girl Scouts has long been considered an honorable endeavor.

It's sad to say that at least one scammer has ripped them off with a fake (counterfeit) $100.00 bill in front of a local Walmart in Texas.

Marianne Martinez Lewisville (CBS 11 News) reports:

The girls were selling cookies in front of the discount store on Wednesday evening when a man said he wanted to buy two boxes. He promptly gave a 100-dollar-bill to the mother of one of the children. After getting his $93 in change, the man left without getting his cookies.


Realizing the man had left his purchase the girls tried to find him, but were unable to. In the meantime, the mother realized the bill was fake but it was too late.


Police say the crook bleached a $5-bill and printed over it to make it look like a $100-bill. Officers say at first glance the bill looks real. "It's the real paper used by the Department of Treasury. Ya know, it has the appearance of a real bill," said Lewisville Police Department Captain Kevin Deaver.

This particular counterfeit $100.00 bill version has been making the rounds for the past few years. Although, it defeats some of the anti-counterfeiting detection devices out there -- largely because the paper is real -- it can be easily caught by the human eye.

These bills are actually $5 bills that have been washed and reproduced as $100 bills. Although at first glance they look and feel legitimate, the way to spot them is by their security features. On the washed (fake) bill the hologram on the right side -- seen by holding the bill up to light -- is Abraham Lincoln. On a real $100 bill, the image is Benjamin Franklin. Additionally, the embedded strips on either side of the bill will say they are $5 bills instead of $100 bills.

Criminals do this by bleaching the bills, then photocopying the $100 bill over it. Unfortunately, portable printing and photocopying technology has made it easy for all sorts of documents to be counterfeited.

For additional ways to determine real money from fake money, the United States Secret Service has an excellent page about it, here.

Another good resource is:

http://www.moneyfactory.gov/

Both of these sites offer training materials for businesses. Using them might be a good option for charitable organizations, also.

Although, no date is set yet, the government plans to issue redesigned $100 bill sometime in the near future. News reports indicate the reason for the redesign is directly related to how many of these washed bills have been seen in recent years.

LA Gangs take a vacation in Hawaii using funny (counterfeit) money

I've read a lot about street gangs, who used to finance themselves by selling drugs, moving into the financial crimes arena. Some say financial crimes are a lot more profitable, and the punishment for getting caught isn't nearly as harsh.

Looks like some of them have gone West (Hawaii) to enjoy a little vacation financed with "funny money."

The HawaiiChannel.com is reporting:

Thousands of dollars worth of counterfeit $100 bills are flowing into Hawaii, most likely from Los Angeles-based gangs, according to Secret Service officials.

For the last week or so, $2,000 to $2,500 a day in counterfeit $100 bills have been passed at retail stores in Waikiki and across the islands, the Secret Service said.

Some high-end Hawaii retailers are taking a hit.

Apparently, the members of the Bloods and Crips involved in this (didn't know they were hanging out together) sometimes buy merchandise and then refund it a short while later. Refund fraud is a common way criminals launder money, or turn it into disposable income.

According to the article, counterfeit (funny) money is also being passed by members of the military coming back from the Middle East.

HawaiiNewsChannel.com article, here. There is a pretty good video on how to detect counterfeit money to the left of the article.

The article confirms what I've seen a lot of in the past couple of years, which is that a lot of the counterfeit money in circulation are five dollar bills washed into hundred bills. Because of this, the counterfeit detection pens, which most merchants use don't work.

The best way to detect them is to hold them up to the light and if the hologram is Abraham Lincoln instead of Benjamin Franklin, it is a counterfeit. The embedded strips will also state that they are five dollar bills, if they are counterfeit.

If you are in the money business, I recommend teaching your employees how to visually inspect money. Counterfeit detection devices are not 100 percent reliable.

The Money Factory (government site) has a lot of good information on how to detect counterfeit money, here.

The United States Secret Service also has a page on their site with a lot of information, here.