Counterfeit Payment

[TwinKristi]

I had a friend who worked at a fast food place at a local outlet mall and accepted a counterfeit $100. Her boss said "watch and learn" and took the $100 to another store and asked for change and came back with 5 $20's.
I would try taking it to a bank and go from there. Then I would invoice the family for $100 plus the 4 days this week and 2wks notice they skipped out on. Send them to collections, small claims court, etc. So lame!! I've never had any problems with cash but if I did and they didn't pay I would be pissed too.

[MrsSteinel'sHouse]

Them walking out is strange. I would have felt really bad if I had given someone a counterfeit bill! My reaction would not be to walk out. I would also contact them and tell them they owe you for their 2 weeks as well as the $100 and that if you do not pay that you will be contacting the police about the bill.

[Unregistered]

Anyone can get a counterfit bill. If you take it to the bank they are required to keep it and you are out your money. If you are dishonest but need the money you can try and pass it to someone unsuspecting. Business do this alot. I personally would chalk it up to lesson learned and don't accept cash anymore. As for the parents who gave you the counterfit..they have no way of knowing if you are trying to pass it off on them or not. As far as they are concerned they paid. If you gave someone cash and a few days later they came back to you and told you that the money you gave them was fake would you be happy to pay them even more money? Probably not.

[craftymissbeth]

Anyone can get a counterfit bill. If you take it to the bank they are required to keep it and you are out your money. If you are dishonest but need the money you can try and pass it to someone unsuspecting. Business do this alot. I personally would chalk it up to lesson learned and don't accept cash anymore. As for the parents who gave you the counterfit..they have no way of knowing if you are trying to pass it off on them or not. As far as they are concerned they paid. If you gave someone cash and a few days later they came back to you and told you that the money you gave them was fake would you be happy to pay them even more money? Probably not.

OP, you're out the $100, sorry to say. Unfortunately, you have no proof of where you got that bill from. If you try to spend it or get change for it then you will be committing a crime... and since the Dept. of Treasury suggests businesses stall the customer and immediately call the police, you can end up in big trouble.

As far as getting that money back from your client, it's not likely. You accepted that bill as payment for services without taking steps in determining whether it was real or not.

It's unfortunate, but I would chalk this up as a learning experience and make sure you do what you need to for this not to happen again.

Dept. of Treasury's steps on what to do if you receive a counterfeit:

http://www.treasury.gov/about/organizational-structure/offices/Treasurer-US/Pages/if-you-suspect.aspx

How to know if money is counterfeit:

http://www.secretservice.gov/money_detect.shtml

How a counterfeit pen works:

http://money.howstuffworks.com/question212.htm

[craftymissbeth]

Also, here are examples of businesses that unknowingly passed on counterfeits to their customers and were not required to reimburse them.

U.S. Postal Service (!!!)

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/25/business/la-fi-lazarus-20100525

TD Bank (they eventually offered a refund, but were not required to)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/04/td-bank-counterfeit-bills_n_1567745.html

[Unregistered]

Oh no! It never occurred to me to worry about counterfeit cash. And I usually think cash is safer than checks because I've had many checks bounce over the years. Guess my NSF policy will be changed so I only accept money orders instead of cash. Ugh, the stuff we have to deal with!

OP here. I never thought of it either. Especially, because I was always wrongly told (I don't know if it's wrong or if it changed) if you could prove someone gave you the counterfeit money they could get in legal trouble. Now, it's like hot potato who has it last.

[Unregistered]

OP here. I never thought of it either. Especially, because I was always wrongly told (I don't know if it's wrong or if it changed) if you could prove someone gave you the counterfeit money they could get in legal trouble. Now, it's like hot potato who has it last.

Her fingerprints wouldn't have been on the bill? I mean, aside from no doubt hundreds of prints, hers would be there too...

[Unregistered]

You should have told them they were the only parents who paid by cash. I would contact them and tell them if they didn't bring me my money I would call the police.

I have called the police. The police basically told me there's no way for me to prove they gave it to me. It's been a week, I could have switched it. They could investigate, but the family might not know it was real. I talked to someone else about it and I said maybe I should have bought a pen. The person told me the pen can give a false positive you need to buy something with a UV part to tell like a good fake. I forgot the name, but I'm sure if anyone is interested they can google it. I'm just only taking cash from my bank. Anywhere else I'll take checks or money orders.

[Unregistered]

I had a friend who worked at a fast food place at a local outlet mall and accepted a counterfeit $100. Her boss said "watch and learn" and took the $100 to another store and asked for change and came back with 5 $20's.
I would try taking it to a bank and go from there. Then I would invoice the family for $100 plus the 4 days this week and 2wks notice they skipped out on. Send them to collections, small claims court, etc. So lame!! I've never had any problems with cash but if I did and they didn't pay I would be pissed too.

I'm just going to take the loss. I don't think I will file a police report, because the law system has let me down. I was given fake money and I can prove who gave it to me, but the police said they can't file a report about them giving me the money because it's not the same day. There's a possibility, I switched the money. I'm not going to pay for legal services for less than 300 dollars. I can't be losing more and more with no gains. Now, I know to never accept cash again. I'm also going to change my policy when a new family comes, as I usually do so people just think routine is changing and not to point fingers, I will make a clause of being paid the beginning of the week instead of the end.

[Unregistered]

Anyone can get a counterfit bill. If you take it to the bank they are required to keep it and you are out your money. If you are dishonest but need the money you can try and pass it to someone unsuspecting. Business do this alot. I personally would chalk it up to lesson learned and don't accept cash anymore. As for the parents who gave you the counterfit..they have no way of knowing if you are trying to pass it off on them or not. As far as they are concerned they paid. If you gave someone cash and a few days later they came back to you and told you that the money you gave them was fake would you be happy to pay them even more money? Probably not.

The only proof, which is not real proof I have as they can lie, is wasn't the new style of 100 dollar bill. I said that to them and that's when they got very mad at me. I don't think they are counterfeiters or in on it, but I think it was passed to them and they found out and passed it to me. They were very funny about it. I noticed they didn't bring up the 20s that they gave me. If someone accused me of passing fake money, I would ask about the whole sum. I mean who would make that up and say just a part was fake? I agree, anyone can give you fake money. I think that's the police aren't very helpful to me. They seem more concerned about the counterfeiters than anyone passing them. Also, when talking to someone I know who works in a bank, they told me there are good fakes. They told me pens don't always work. If you're taking in a lot of cash you need something, I forgot the name, that has a UV light. Real money has hidden messages, fakes can't fake them. Only UV light can read it.

[Unregistered]

Also, here are examples of businesses that unknowingly passed on counterfeits to their customers and were not required to reimburse them.

U.S. Postal Service (!!!)

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/25/business/la-fi-lazarus-20100525

TD Bank (they eventually offered a refund, but were not required to)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1567745.html

I'm aware. The police told me I wouldn't be getting my money back, but mostly the police gave me as attitude like I switched the money.

I have the money in a locking compartment in my office. If authorities want it, I will hand it over. I don't want anyone saying I gave it to them.

[CraftyMom]

You cold also go with online payments. I use Childcarepay.com through minute menu. OMG I love it! There is never an exchange of hands of any payment! No worrying about cash or checks being bad!

[Unregistered]

You cold also go with online payments. I use Childcarepay.com through minute menu. OMG I love it! There is never an exchange of hands of any payment! No worrying about cash or checks being bad!

Is it a free service or do I have to pay a monthly fee?