November 24th, 2023 by WCBC Radio
Cash register operators and business owners be aware, Counterfeit currency has been discovered in our region complicating the holiday shopping season. A financial disaster for any small busines providing services or merchandise only to find out when they make their bank deposits the cash is fake. Locally one dollar bills are being passed off as one hundred dollar bills after the forger washes them. This process unfortunately will pass the routine pen test many cashiers do to authenticate currency. One possible way to validate a $100 bill visually is to check for a stripe embedded in the bill. A one dollar bill does not contain this stripe. In the process of researching this story WCBC news spoke with the Cumberland Police Department who advises that there has been five cases of counterfeit $100 bills used in businesses in the past two weeks. The investigation is ongoing and will now include assistance from the Secret Service Counterfeit Division.
