Counterfeiting hurts us all

It’s green, it’s valuable and it’s hard to track. Counterfeit bills have been popping up throughout the region in the past few weeks, and law enforcement is working to track them down.

Samina Chaudhry hopes they find the man who visited his store last month.

A cashier at the Jet Pep on Fob James Drive in Valley did exactly what she was trained to do when she received a $100 bill from a customer wearing an Auburn University cap, said Chaudhry, the general manager. The cashier used a detection pen to check the authenticity of the bill. It turned yellow to indicate it was genuine, but Chaudhry said the cashier remained skeptical. The cashier then checked markings — a line and small red and green threads — on the inside of the bill by holding it up to the light. When the cashier called 911 to get the police involved, Chaudhry said the customer became suspicious, grabbed the merchandise he was trying to buy and left the store.

Chaudhry said the incident was caught on surveillance cameras, but it was no help in identifying the suspect for the Valley Police Department.

“The merchandise was a loss, but it also scared other customers,” he said. “It hurts our business, but you have to be more curious and more protective nowadays.”

Law enforcement throughout the area have seen a number of counterfeit currency reports.

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“It’s been primarily in the 100s and 50s (bills) … The serial numbers are all the same, and that tells you the origin is all the same,” Opelika police Capt. Allan Elkins said.

Law enforcement in Auburn, Opelika and Lee County work closely with the U.S. Secret Service to investigate counterfeit operations.

Counterfeit bill reports come in waves, Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said.

“It surfaces from time to time,” he said. “Every now and then, we see a spate of counterfeit bills. It’s kind of cyclic.”

This last spike appears to be local in origin, Elkins said.

Counterfeit operations can be large or small, using complex or simple equipment, said Opelika police Detective Brandon Henderson, who handles most of the counterfeit investigations for his department.

High-tech printers and scanners make it easier these days to print your own money, Elkins said. But techniques like florescent stripes, microprinting and others make it trickier to pass a believable counterfeit bill.

“Can it still be counterfeited?” he asked. “Yes, but it’s getting more difficult.”

Fake money isn’t easy to chase down either.

“Counterfeiting is an extremely difficult investigation to conduct,” Elkins said. “It’s money — it’s extremely mobile.”

Because cash changes hands so frequently and because people spend it erratically, he said a rash of fake bills could be distributed, and it could take police more than six months to round up all the bills, if they ever do.

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Jamie Lazenby feels fortunate her business, the La-Z-Bee in Auburn, has had only two counterfeits bills in the last 21 years.

She remembered one was clearly fake because it was “almost paper thin. It was almost like tissue paper.” The other was “normal,” she said, until the bank called and said there was a fake $20 bill. That was before she had detection pens.

All customers were honest and got the benefit of the doubt years ago, but now, she said the only way to stay in business is to be aware of customers and check bills every day.

“I tell them (employees) all the time to stay up on (counterfeit bills),” Lazenby said. “We mark (test) every $20 bill and all 100s. We try to use every precaution we can. I buy the pens by the case.”

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Recently, some local people have reported getting counterfeit bills as change.

If you get a phony bill, you take a loss, Elkins said. There’s no reimbursement. So, it could be tempting to pass it along rather than lose $50.

But that would be a very bad idea, said Lee County District Attorney Nick Abbett.

“You’re just kind of out,” Abbett said. “But it’s better than knowingly try to pass it on and committing a felony crime.”

Knowingly passing counterfeit bills is punishable with up to 20 years in jail.

“Just be alert,” Abbett said. “Check your money, check your change. Don’t accept a counterfeit bill in change. Notify the police. Don’t let anybody pass it to you, and don’t pass it along.”

When stores get counterfeit bills, it comes out of their pocket. But ultimately, it’s a lose-lose situation, Elkins said. Stores raise prices to compensate for losses.

“Who pays for it? We do. The customer pays,” Elkins said.

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The Arby’s on 20th Avenue in Valley is out $120 in the past month after employees accepted a counterfeit $100 bill Jan. 3 and a counterfeit $20 just before Christmas, according to Valley police reports.

“It’s a crime we can’t fight. We can’t recover the money,” said manager Jackie Wilson. “You just call the police, take it as a loss and suck it up.”

Wilson has been at the local restaurant a little more than two years, but has seen a lot of fake bills in her years in management. She said the $20 bill used last month was “excellent. I had never seen such a good fake money.” It was accepted by a cashier because Wilson said it already had been marked by a detection pen and passed the test.

“It felt different, but not fake,” she said.

The $100 bill, on the other hand, was “horrible,” according to Wilson. “I don’t know how it got through. But now we don’t accept any bills larger than a $20 bill unless a manager says so.” After that, she said employees were re-trained on the detection process.

Wilson said she thinks businesses like Arby’s and Jet Pep are targeted by counterfeiters because they are a “hustle business,” meaning that they move at a quick place.

“You only have the time you accept the bill until you close the till to know,” she said.

But then Adam Nemeroff, the general manager of Mellow Mushroom in Auburn, said they fall victim too when customers leave the cash on the table and leave the restaurant. Sometimes that cash is counterfeit.

“We’re a college town with a lot of cash business,” he said. “We get so many 20s, it’s hard to check every single one. When we do get counterfeit bills come through, that’s just money that’s lost. That’s money taken from us and not reimbursed in any way. We get cheated.”

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Counterfeiting isn’t something law enforcement takes lightly, Jones said.

“It’s serious business,” he said. “We’re talking about counterfeiting U.S. currency. Everyone loses in these situations. It’s something we’re very serious about and very concerned about, and we’re certainly going expend any energy it takes to identify the perpetrators.”

Businesses don’t take the matter lightly either.

The convenience of fast-food restaurants and gas stations may be lost when employees take the time to check for counterfeit bills, but Lazenby, Chaudhry and Wilson agree that they have to do what’s best for their businesses, as well as all their customers.