With the introduction of the new plastic money a few years ago, fraudsters have had to get crafty when it comes to recreating counterfeit Canadian cash. But according to Detective Constable Daivd Lea, counterfeit money is starting to get more hands on with practical arts and crafts.
“We have seen counterfeiters cut the hologram out of smaller notes – say a $5 bill – put it on a $20,” Lea of the WRPS fraud branch said.”There’s a few $100 bills that we’ve seen that are very high-quality counterfeit notes,” he added. “Really the only thing that people are going to notice the most is the paint comes off of the bank note because they don’t add the varnish that’s on the real notes.”
On average, the fraud branch deals with 20 to 25 cases of fraud, but for some reason this year, detectives had 95. That’s just Canadian cash – they have also seen about 90 cases involving American money, which is on par with other years. Denominations have been everything from $20 bills to $100 bills and counterfeiters are targeting smaller businesses and vendors.
Police will be running a Know Your Notes social media campaign to remind people to be on the lookout for fake money.
Lea said it’s important for businesses to be aware of the increase of fake bills, especially with the holiday shopping season upon us. If businesses accept counterfeit currency, they’re out of luck.
Read the full story over at the CBC.
