Counterfeiters often thrive during holidays

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

McMinnville investigator Derwin Adcock displays a counterfeit $100 bill and warns area merchants to be careful.

With money changing hands constantly during the Christmas holidays, police say counterfeiters are using the yuletide season to put their fake money into circulation.

“It’s just a good idea to look at the money a little closer and to require identification for checks, take a little more time, since criminals will use the rush of the Christmas season to try to pass counterfeits,” said District Attorney General Dale Potter in issuing an alert to local merchants.

The alert comes after at least three counterfeit bills have been reported in the past weeks, taken at various establishments around McMinnville.

According to McMinnville Police Investigator Lt. Derwin Adcock, at least one of the bills came as part of a large deposit to a local bank, prompting police to suspect the fake bills are in circulation in this area.

“What we’re seeing is $100s right now,” Adcock said, noting some of the recent fakes even defy special counterfeit pens used by merchants to check for fakes. “What we found is they were using five dollar bills and changing the denomination so the bills checked out when marked by the pens.”

Adcock said looking for water marks by holding a bill up to the light and special security strips which are also embedded in the real bills, are the best ways, along with the use of the pens, to separate real from fake. Most counterfeits are generally in the $20 and $100 denominations.

“That’s a mighty big hit to take so folks need to be careful when taking $100s,” Adcock said.

Anyone discovering they have taken a counterfeit bill is required to report it to law enforcement immediately. Any attempt to pass the bill while suspecting it is counterfeit is a crime. The person or business which accepts the counterfeit is the person who takes the monetary loss.