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limiter
October 4, 2006 4:31 PM
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Um... I bet all my $100 fake dollar bills that the guy who left the room with the money switched out three real bills with counterfeit ones he had in the back. \"Africa's full of counterfeit bills\"... yeah and you just got passed 3.

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Falconfire
October 4, 2006 4:36 PM
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\"but we're willing to put good money that the US Mint is not slipping in faked bills to banks.\"

Dont be too surprised. A good percentage of our money is fake, and most of it came from the Reserve (which BTW is NOT the Mint, two different places, one creates the money the other holds it). 100's not likely, but 1's and 5's are the most counterfitted bills out there. The reserve does very little testing of money coming BACK to the place unless it looks suspect. If its a really good counterfit bill it will get by undetected.

That being said, WaMu doesnt get crap from them directly, it gets it from holding houses who get it from them and WaMus ATMs are not even loaded with that money... they get special prepared trays that the bank staff dont even touch.

Little known fact, the secret service was created not to protect the presedent.... but to find counterfit money. What is more surprising though is that 99% of their job is still that to this day.

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timmus
October 4, 2006 4:37 PM
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I think limiter may have a good point. Otherwise, I think one is out on a limb trying to get a bank to take back counterfeits, because really they are obligated to seize them without recompense.

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Princess Sparkle Pony
October 4, 2006 4:43 PM
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Limiter is probably right. I've gotta side with the bank on this one.

That's the rub with counterfeits... whomever ends up with them when they're discovered is the person who loses the money. That's just how it works.

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Ben Popken
October 4, 2006 4:45 PM
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Limiter, that is a really good point!

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amazon
October 4, 2006 4:49 PM
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You know what I hate most about counterfeit bills? It's the poor schmuck that bothers to be honest about them that gets stuck. Banks and companies have seem to have zero accountability when they hand out fakes, but woe unto you if you try to give them one.
ugh.

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Falconfire
October 4, 2006 4:52 PM
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yeah RTFA now and you can see right there, the guy got suckered. Probably passed the fake 100's in Africa. Like I said while 1's and 5's I can see, 100's are a red flag always and would have gotten noticed.

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Asherah
October 4, 2006 4:54 PM
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To emphasize Princess Sparkly Pony's comment, it is quite true that if you are the bearer of the counterfeit bill, you are the one who will take the loss, or worst case scenario, when you unknowingly go to spend said bill, you may have the policy called on you for trying to negotiate it (even, unknowingly.) Point being...if you make it a practice to deal with a lot of cash, familiarize yourself with the standards of good bills, and I would even dare say pay a visit to your local bank and ask them to show you a few of their counterfeits for educational purposes. I did this for plenty of clients back in the day, however this was primarily after we had confiscated counterfeit bills in their business and personal deposits.

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AcilletaM
October 4, 2006 5:03 PM
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Protect yourself because really, the banks don't care about you. Most office supply stores sell the counterfeit checking pens and such, get one and check your big bills yourself. Especially when your at the bank and getting money. Tellers only look shocked the first time or two you do it.

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Skeptic
October 4, 2006 5:18 PM
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It does seem rather obvious from the story. Really, really obvious. Often when people are ripped off they couldn't see the subterfuge because it was well disguised and yet here the probable subterfuge is like a semi running through the story.

How did this story even merit posting? \"I went to Africa, gave some guy a bunch of $100, he **leaves the room with them**, comes back and tells me their counterfeit so clearly my bank in the US ripped me off?\" WTF?

Although the turnover for bank tellers is about as high as for Supercuts hairdressers, they are trained to spot counterfeits because the bank has to eat them if they accept them. Further, most banks have their own cash and change counting centers which count and package most of the cash tellers hand out. This cash goes through sophisticated counterfeit detecters which are way more sensitive than \"some guy\" in Africa.

I can't believe the story that makes this probable rip off so painfully obvious is below the fold.

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Mike_
October 4, 2006 5:57 PM
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Hey BC, let me take a look at the rest of those $100's. They look an awful lot like Monopoly money, but I'll have to take a closer look in the other room. You know, the room where I keep my Monopoly money.

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Hooray4Zoidberg
October 4, 2006 6:25 PM
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This African Safari didn't happen to take place in Nigeria did it?

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Skeptic
October 4, 2006 7:07 PM
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\"Most office supply stores sell the counterfeit checking pens and such, get one and check your big bills yourself. Especially when your at the bank and getting money. Tellers only look shocked the first time or two you do it.\"

That does sound like fun.

But all that is in those \"counterfeit detecting pens\" is iodine! Iodine reacts to the starch \"\"sizing\" found in many kinds of paper to prevent ink from soaking into it (ever try writing on a napkin?) However, not all counterfeit bills have starch in them and some real bills have been exposed to starch through everyday use, including laundry. Magician and s---stirrer James Randi even claims to get stacks of $50s from his bank which he then spray-starches and re-depostits.

You are better off looking for color changing ink, micro-print, watermarking and the coded security tapes than using iodine.

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Falconfire
October 4, 2006 7:17 PM
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yes but the iodine helps you to target which ones might be suspect. Your not supposed to rely on it solely as the indicator, but it combined with what you said to be the indicator.

I have had many bills that have the ink on them that are legit.

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Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)
October 4, 2006 7:27 PM
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\"I've been stuck with a couple fake bills in my day -- one time I had to go to three dark bars in a row to get rid of a photocopied $50\"

Um, hello, felony? Once you know it's counterfeit, you can't pass it on!

Contact the Secret Service, not the bank. And admitting to felonies on the internet ALSO not the brightest idea.

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crayonshinobi
October 4, 2006 8:23 PM
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Ah the African Safari honeymoon...hunt endangered species, contract any one of several deadly diseases including flesh eating bacteria, risk being chopped up by machete wielding maniacs for your pants, and get ripped off and passed counterfeit bills.

How romantic!

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pete
October 4, 2006 8:37 PM
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crayonshinobi FTW

Easy way to avoid this - when taking a substantial amount of cash with you on vacation, subtly mark all the bills.
Just a fleck of black magic marker, or a mark from a counterfeit-check pen (if you're super-paranoid), on the lower-right corner each bill.
When scammer re-enters room with switched out bills you can easily call him on it.

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North of 49
October 4, 2006 8:42 PM
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I love Canadian Money. Harder to counterfeit. Holograms, 3d ink, and more just to keep the money legit.

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Hooray4Zoidberg
October 4, 2006 8:46 PM
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\"When scammer re-enters room with switched out bills you can easily call him on it.\"

Then he'll pull out a pack of mentos and you can both have a good chuckle.

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gotbock
October 4, 2006 9:02 PM
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\"Then he'll pull out a pack of mentos and you can both have a good chuckle.\"

Or he'll take out his machete and take back his counterfeits, and your pants.

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Plasmafire
October 4, 2006 9:17 PM
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You need to complain to the Secret Service in these matters, they by law are the ones who handle all counterfit currency, and when they ask you where you got it, it could launch an investigation into their entire bank, all the way to their corporate headquarters.

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Trai_Dep
October 4, 2006 10:13 PM
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There are two points of vulnerability I see. The clerk leaving the presence. And LW mentioned one of the fake $100 was stolen while in his hotel room. If someone can steal unattended cash, they can swap it too. Much slicker than stealing (thief #2 - an amateur)

PS: check if your toothbrush wasn't counterfitted as well (develop the roll of film in your camera to be sure)

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bccomment
October 4, 2006 11:05 PM
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Hey, it's BC from the story, checking in on the comments. I kind of like Limiter's possible explanation for its sheer punchline value (\"Ba-dum-Ching!\"), but I don't think that's what happened. No point in arguing it, everyone's got their mind made up either way. Besides, if it had been an open-and-shut, airtight case against WaMu, I would have put up more of a fight at the bank, as Ben suggested -- and I clearly couldn't on the evidence alone.

But that's beside the point. Getting-scammed-in-Africa stories are a dime a dozen and, yeah, totally unworthy of any attention outside of the loneliest Lonely Planet message board -- but that's not a story that I would have complained about to Consumerist. So, if that's what you're focusing on here, then give yourself another pat on the back, smart guy, because you totally missed the point.

The story here is this: a bank manager told me point blank that they have no anti-counterfeiting measures in place whatsoever and that they couldn't vouch for the authenticity of their bills at all. I find that to be a little fucked up. Plus, Skeptic's point about bank tellers being trained to look for counterfeits would be dead on -- if the problem wasn't that WaMu has cut the tellers from the process entirely!

So was it, in Clue© parlance, the Tanzanian tour operator, with the fake bills, in Africa, or the sleazy, fake-loan-sending, self-admittedly-careless corporate bank, with the cash dispenser, in Union Square that did the deed? Make up your own mind. But I can tell you this much - I'll go back to Africa, but I'll never step in a WaMu again.

BTW, I'm finding a frame for the 2 remaining fakes. They're kind of cool.

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billspaced
October 4, 2006 11:08 PM
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BC was punked. The guy leaving the room with his money -- he gave BC the fake bills. That's one of the more obvious dupes I've ever seen.

Man, BC, sorry, but you were had.

The bank had nothing to do with it.

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kustoo
October 4, 2006 11:58 PM
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I used to work for Washington Mutual Bank and this does happen sometimes. The truth is that unless you notice that the money is fake before you actually leave the bank, no bank is going to take responsibility. It sucks, but it is the truth.

A similar incident happened to me last Christmas. I took out a bunch of cash from the bank and after trying to pay for some toys for the neice, I was told that one of the bills I submitted was fake. Since I don't carry around hundred dollar bills, I knew exactly where it was from. I went back to the bank and despite my cries, the Wamu branch refused to refund/replace my fake bill. They insisted that I could have changed it when I left the bank. If I would have noticed before I left, I would have been able to get it replaced.

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bccomment
October 5, 2006 12:14 AM
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Actually, the missus just reminded me of a crucial point - he only handed me back two bills, the third fake bill was in our stash. In my bag. In the Land Rover. Outside. And hadn't been touched for a week.

Oh, snap, bitches! Or maybe he was pulling some David Blaine type shit? Breaking into our honeymoon suite and planting a fake a bill so that the counterfeiting scheme he devised with Kim Jong-Il would continue undetected!

Nice job ignoring the point, people: WaMu doesn't care about fake bills. Or about you. Enjoy all that free checking, suckers!

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papadopoulos
October 5, 2006 3:37 AM
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falconfire's claim that \"WaMus ATMs are not even loaded with that money... they get special prepared trays that the bank staff dont even touch\" is not true. I had the misfortune of working as a WaMu teller (and ATM custodian) and can tell you that bank staff do, in fact, load the ATMs, sometimes even with cash that comes in off the street.

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wstanton
October 5, 2006 8:38 AM
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Wow, so much abject trust for the bank, who believes some 17 year old teller, who could care less about this job is qualified to be an expert on counterfeiting. It's possible for the money to have been obtained, (switched, or whatever) anywhere, but for a company as large as WM to lose at least one customer for a paltry $300.00, when they have plenty of insurance to cover the loss without passing anything on to the consumer, that is the real problem.

Having worked in the financial industry for my entire adult life, I can tell you that whatever happened, WM dropped the ball, and mega Kudo's for pointing it out!

-W

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polarbz
October 5, 2006 10:29 AM
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Send your counterfeits to your Soldiers overseas. The local merchants can't tell the difference - and it all eventually ends up in the hands of insurgents, so, really, you are doing the world a favor by making it so some insurgent somewhere can't buy his bombs because the Russians MAY actually check to see if its counterfeit. Nothing pisses of a suicide bomber like having no bombs.

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gypsychk
October 5, 2006 12:58 PM
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\"... for a company as large as WM to lose at least one customer for a paltry $300.00, when they have plenty of insurance to cover the loss without passing anything on to the consumer ...\"

By admitting the counterfeit bills came from a company ATM, would WaMu also be admitting to a felony? (I'm really asking; I don't know.) If that's the case, WaMu (and its customers) have a lot more to lose than $300 ... Ultimately, it sounds like an already unhappy customer was goosed to finally break with WaMu.

I'm sorry any of this happened, BC. I hope the honeymoon was wonderful otherwise, and congrats on getting hitched.

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anony
October 5, 2006 4:34 PM
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Wow.

This guy admits to a felony (knowingly passing a fake $50 in a bar) and has the nerve to blame his woes on WAMU after getting scammed in Africa?.

It'd be the pot calling the kettle black if WAMU passed the fakes. But this doesn't even reach that level.

Brass balls.

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saintjohnson
October 5, 2006 9:54 PM
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I feel the same with Canadian coinage in the U.S. they're fine until someone looks close then they either have to pass it off or just put it in a loose change cup to be forgotten.

Of course...with a C-note...you'd need a bigger cup and/or more disposable income.

Think about it...$200...that's almost an ipod.

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jfischer
April 7, 2008 8:06 PM
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Clearly, the strategy here would be to say nothing to
WaMu about the fake bills, but to return to the bank,
withdraw say $500, and THEN \"discover\" the funny money.

This would require one to have the fakes in one's wallet,
and as one inserts the new money into the wallet, \"notice\"
that one of the fakes \"looks fake\".

If they are going to game their customers, they can
themselves be gamed.

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