Banks Giving Out Counterfeit Bills Now?
We read that they Wachovia was in trouble because of their $8 billion dollar loss in the second quarter, but now are they giving out counterfeit bills at a branch in Florida? Are things really that bad for them?
Garcia said Wachovia is ripping him off and has alerted the sheriff’s office, the Secret Service and the media.
“Ten (bills) in one transaction to come from one bank, that is definitely unusual,” U.S. Secret Service representative Jim Glendinning said.
“But is it possible?” Pipitone asked.
“Remotely, yes it is,” Glendinning said.
Glendinning said he was not surprised the Bank of America caught the counterfeits but wondered how a Wachovia could pass the bills unless a bank employee was in on it, Pipitone reported.
Imagine going to your bank, asking to withdraw $1,000, and then finding out that the cash your bank gave you is counterfeit….and you are out $1,000 because the bank will not own up to it, even though it has happened before to them. Good times.
If you take a counterfeit bill to the bank in a deposit, they will ask you to replace it with a real bill and then report the counterfeit to the Secret Service.
That’s why cashiers use the counterfeit pens because they don’t want to take a fake bill since the onus is on the business when the deposit is short.
Used to drive me insane having to make a second trip to the bank just to drop off an extra $20.
Yea, but what do you do if they give you counterfeit bills? I guess we should all be carrying those pens around!
I guess carrying a pen would be good, as long as you didn’t get them for Wachovia. There’s are obviously malfunctioning.
Good one Gary….so very true.
I recently accepted $1500 in cash from the sale of an item that I had listed on craigslist. I was kicking myself for not getting a counterfeit bill detector pen prior to the transaction. I then deposited the money at my credit union. I expected the teller to check each one of the one hundred dollar bills, but to my surprise she simply counted them out twice and stuffed them in the drawer. I sighed in relief!
Wow. I sometimes wish I had one of those pens (that worked) at the library. Because people occasionally pay the larger fines in large denominations. So I’ll take a $100 bill if a) the fine is well over $50, b) I have change, and c) there’s less than 1/2 hour until closing (I’m allowed to ask for a closer amount if I can’t make change or won’t have any change left…because my cash drawer is really pathetic at the start of the day. libraries.).
I know I wouldn’t be blamed, but it’s certainly awkward to go through the whole checking for a watermark, looking at the paper, etc. All I know about counterfeiting is what I’ve seen on tv or read about in books when I was a kid. It’s not something one prepares for in a library career.
Wow… that stinks. Another reason not to use cash. wow.
I went to Regions Bank in Smyrna Tennessee today and cashed my $300 unemployment check. When I tried to deposit the money in my Suntrust account just down the street I was told one of the bills was a fake. The head teller “Eva” at Regions told me “how do I know you didn’t have it in your wallet and switched it out before you got to Suntrust. OMG who tries to deposit a counterfeit bill at a bank!
So today I have been to banks 6 times, the police dept 2 times. Have spoken with the FBI 1 time and the Secret Service 2 times.
This happened to me.
Is it counterfeit or is it just old like me?
I will have to wait until Monday to know.
A 1950 bill was slipped between a stack of new bills.
Dear Sir:
I went to PNC bank to deposit a Bank of America Cashier’s check to pay bills.
I was told that the Cashier’s check would have to clear just like any other check.
I was told to just go to Bank of America and cash it and bring back the cash and the funds would be available immediately to go food shopping, pay insurance, pay electric bills, make mortgage payment or any other bills that have been stacking up.
I had two checks one small personal check and the B of A cashier’s check so I made a partial deposit of one of the checks at 16:03 (4:03)
I took the B of A Cashier’s check to My Branch of B of A Where everyone knows me.
I have been banking at that center for decades.
When I presented the Cashier’s check to the teller she told me it had to be cleared by Shela the Branch Manger.
Shela came over, and we spoke even before she even spoke to the teller, I have known Shela for years.
Shela approved the transaction.
I thanked her and she went back to her office.
The teller (Mary) took several packets of money out of her drawer.
She then began counting out the funds,
She placed one old bill in the center of the packet of new bills.
Then she counted them by hand.
I thought this odd, because they always count it by machine, and my withdrawals are always much smaller than this one, but today she counted it by hand.
I saw her momentarily pause at the old bill, and then go on counting almost as fast as the machine.
She placed the money in a bank envelope and handed it to me.
I then took it out and counted it myself in front of her at the counter.
I too counted, much slower than her, but I too also stopped at the old bill.
I did not have my Bifocals on so I could not read anything like the date or anything but I could see it was an old bill.
I placed the money back in the envelope and made a joke then left the bank.
I drove directly to PNC once again and completed my second deposit at 16:33 (4:33) all in the space of less than a half hour, from deposit to deposit.
When the teller at PNC hand counted the bills.
She to stopped at the old bill.
This time she pulled the bill out of the package and re hand counted the bills.
She looked at the bill strangely, held it up to the light, used her pencil on it, and then took it to the ultraviolet light machine.
When she returned she picked up the phone and made a call.
I asked what is going on?
She did not answer me.
Just then Roberto the Manager asked me a question.
I asked him to come over and see what was going on.
He asked me if B of A gave me any trouble cashing my Cashier’s check., I replied no but there is something wrong.
He came over to the teller to see what the problem was.
She told him that It was a counterfeit bill. and that she had the secret service on the phone.
That was the first I heard of what the problem was.
I showed them the envelope from B of A thet had contained the bills.
I asked for the bill back to bring it back to B of A.
They told me that they could not return it to me, but were going to send it to the secret service.
I asked what would happen and I was told you are just out $100.00
I demanded a receipt.
Roberto gave me a photo copy of the bill both back and front.
I said that was not enough, so Roberto had (Tiffany) one of the tellers stamp it with their stamp.
I brought that photo copy to Shela (Branch Manager of B of A) and showed it to her.
She dismissed me, and told me that Laurena had to approve it.
Approve what? “I said”
I went to Laurena and told her what had happened. the teller (Mary who had handled my original transaction) was at the next window.
Mary heard what I was telling Laurena.
Laurna told me that Shela had to approve it. Approve what?
Laurna said, “if we give you your money back”.
At that point I was beside myself!
What do you mean IF!?
Laurena calmed me down and asked what bank I had deposited it in.
I told her PNC here in town.
She called down there and asked to talk to the teller.
She spoke to Tiffany the one who had given me the PNC bank stamp on the photo copy of the bill as a makeshift receipt.
Laurena told Tiffany that it was just an old bill and it simply did not have the usual anti counterfeit measures in place such as the strip and the special ink that reacts to a counterfeit pencil or ultra violet light.
She told Tiffany to just return the bill and she would exchange it for me.
Tiffany told Laurena that the bill had been sent to the secret service.
Laurena then told me that Tiffany had sent the bill to the secret service and I should get it back by Monday and it would be credited to my account.
Laurena repeatedly told me not to worry, it was just an old bill and that everything would be alright.
I am 62 years old and to me $100.00 is like $1,000.00 to everyone else.
I returned to PNC bank and told Roberto what had happened at B of A on my second trip and confrontation of the Manager and of the head teller (Laurena)
In the confusion, I did not pay my bills as planned and in the sweltering heat my electricity was shut off.
The next day I went back to both banks.
I asked B of A for a statement from the Teller (Mary) to just state that she had placed one old bill in a stack of new bills.
After Shela called someone at B of A, I was told by Shela (bank Manager) that they could not do that.
I then requested the video tape of the transaction and again Sheila made excuses that the camera system just makes random recordings of all the windows and that the transaction may not even be on the tape.
I told Shela it is like B of A is making the victim look like the suspect.
How is an elderly civilian to know if the bank is giving him a counterfeit bill?
I asked what was going to happen to my $100.00 she told me you are just out $100.00 because you left the lobby.
If you can not trust the bank to give you real money then who can you trust?
They have at least four sophisticated tools to check the money what does a half blind 62 year old man have?
How is it, that the packets of money, that Mary (the teller) used, had not been counted by the automatic machines?
That would have caught the bill in the first place?
How is it, it was not counted by machine when she handed it to me?
How is it, that B of A can claim they would have exchanged the bill had I not left the lobby?
What kind of insanity is this, that elderly civilians have to be fearful of money taken from the bank they have done business with for decades?
I told some people what had happened to me and they told me to contact the Attorney General and lodge a complaint, which I did.
They also gave me the below link.
It happened to me. I withdrew a large sum of cash from my Wells Fargo(Wachovia) account. I witnessed the cashier take out a new bundle of bills, break the wrapper and count out the money. I received 5 counterfeit $100 bills. I did not know at first. Of course when I took them back there was nothing they could do. I believe that these are all inside jobs.