Some merchants in Eureka Springs have recently reported getting burned by accepting counterfeit $100 bills. Equity Bank confirmed some of their customers have reported receiving the counterfeit bills.
Counterfeiting is more common than you might think. Little Rock’s U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Allen Bryant said he couldn’t speak to an open investigation, but in general terms, quite a few counterfeit bills are being passed statewide in Arkansas.
“It is not uncommon to have 10,000 counterfeit bills passed in Arkansas each month,” Bryant said. “As far as our economy goes, that is a relatively small number. But no one wants to lose $100 or even $20. There is still a good bit of cash being exchanged and when you have that, you have counterfeit being exchanged.”
Bryant said counterfeiting is easier than it was 30 years ago because of digital reproduction but, still, counterfeit bills don’t hold up to close inspection.
“There are a ton of security features and counterfeit bills are usually easy to detect,” he said. “The easiest security feature to detect in the $20s and $100s is the watermark. Hold the bill up to the light and look for a ghost image that matches the photo on the bill. About 99 percent of what gets passed doesn’t have a watermark at all. If you look carefully, counterfeit bills are foggy and poor looking. Genuine currency is high resolution.”
The counterfeit 100s being passed in Eureka Springs included a foreign language printed near the bottom of the bill.
More information about security features is available at the website usdollars.usss.gov/, the website also used by banks to report counterfeit bills. People receiving the bills should report them to the local police department.
“We encourage people to check their bills,” Bryant said. “Globally, $100 bills are the most passed. Domestically, $20 are the most passed. I see more 20s than 100s. Folks won’t take $100 as often as a $20s. We get $10 and $5 counterfeit bills and see $50 sometimes. Counterfeit $1s are fairly rare.”