Even though our society has been using money for quite some time, age-old problems remain an issue to this very day. Counterfeit currency, for example, remains a big problem even in 2017. While bitcoin is the only currency that can’t be counterfeited by any means, traditional money is often duplicated successfully. Below are some of the more memorable recent money counterfeiting stories.
4. Fake US$100 Bills To Pay Car Loan
An intriguing story surfaced on Bloomberg last year, which talked about how one man was arrested for using counterfeit US$100 bills. To be more precise, he used four of these bills to pay off his car loan. Although it is possible this man received these bills from some scam artist and unknowingly tried to spend for this purchase, further investigation showed there is a very different reason for this behavior.
It turns out he man’s wife used counterfeit bills to pay for laundry. Moreover, both the man and his wife were caught on camera trying to spend counterfeit bills at a Walmart clerk when paying for grocery shopping. It was later on revealed the man had purchased US$30,000 worth of fake bills for under half their face value. These bills were supplied by an old friend and his cousin.
3. Milford Students Spend Fake US$20 bills
One of the aspects that makes counterfeit bills so hard to detect is how they can come in all different denominations. A lot of people expect criminals to create fake US$100 bills, but five New Milford students were almost successful in spending their counterfeit US$20 bills. All bills carried the same serial number, which is a dead giveaway of fake bills. During the investigation, the police found a print and paper, as well as uncut counterfeit cash. Contrary to what most people might believe, the students “only” printed US$1,000 worth of fake bills, with only a few of them being spent in the process.
2. Fake US$100 Bills Bought on eBay
The vast majority of counterfeit currency is bought and sold on darknet markets. However, one man successfully purchased an unknown quantity of fake US$100 bills from eBay last year. He even went as far as walking into a store to exchange his fake bill for smaller denomination currency. Unfortunately for Richard Jesse Billuk, he was caught on camera during this process. Later on, an additional nine store owners successfully identified him as a person using fake currency at their stores.
1. A String of Counterfeit Money Use
Most people who use counterfeit money would not think of doing so for months on end. Quite a few criminals use fake money to make one or two large purchases before they disappear into obscurity. Robert L. Barga, living in Sidney, Ohio, did things very differently, though. He used his counterfeit cash for at least four months straight, which eventually lead to his arrest at the end of 2016.
A total of 19 instances of using counterfeit money has been attributed to Barga. Moreover, in three of these 19 cases, he was also believed to be responsible for pioneering the money in question. It is likely other individuals are part of this operation, albeit no further arrests were made since December of 2016. It is unclear what Barga spent his money on exactly, yet it was expensive enough to warrant a full-scale police investigation.
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