New security features may be reducing the circulation ofcounterfeit bills in the United States, but funny money is showingup at The University of Memphis.
U of M police officers responded to two calls about suspectcurrency at the University Bookstore Feb. 10 and 19. Both of thebills in question were $10 notes.
University Police Services turned the notes over to the SecretService, the agency with exclusive jurisdiction over investigationsdealing with counterfeit currency, officials said.
In both instances, bookstore cashiers noticed the bills whencounting out their registers, according to police reports.
After analysis, the Secret Service returned one of the $10 billsthat they determined to be authentic.
"The counterfeit detection pens the bookstore was using may haveexpired," said Derek Myers, deputy director of U of M PoliceServices.
This may have been the case with a counterfeit $100 bill thatwas passed through the Bursar's Office in January, he said.
"That bill wasn't caught until it got to the bank," said Myers."They threw out all of their old detection pens and bought newones."
Myers said Police Services has talked to officials in theBursar's office about modifying procedures to prevent acceptance offake bills.
"We've seen counterfeit turn up on campus in the past," saidMyers, "but this is the highest number of incidents in such a shortperiod of time."
Secret Service agents in Memphis said they see varying amountsof counterfeit money turned over to their office.
"We get counterfeit currency turned into us on a weekly basis,"said Derek Verdeyen, special agent in charge of the Secret Servicebranch in Memphis. "In a typical week, we probably receive about$1,000 in counterfeit bills. It varies from week to weekthough."
Criminals may be using fake bills of lower denominations becausethey attract less attention.
The presence of counterfeit money in the Memphis area is notunusual, said Verdeyen, but smaller denominations are less commonthan $20, $50 and $100 notes.
"The higher the denomination, the more scrutiny it will draw,"he said. "We see more counterfeit $20s than anything else."
Recent appearances of counterfeit notes at The U of M have beenlimited to the bookstore and the Bursar's Office.
"There have been no problems I'm aware of (in Dining Services),"said Chuck Wigington, U of M food service director. "We train allof our cashiers to look for counterfeit bills at theirregisters."
Local agents offer some tips to avoid accepting counterfeitcurrency.
The first thing to do is compare the suspect bill to a knowngenuine note of the same denomination, said Verdeyen.
"You can quickly see the difference in the quality of the paper.The paper used to print official currency is not available on theopen market," he said.
The red and blue fibers on the paper, watermarks and embeddedsecurity threads are some of the main security features on the newbills that people should familiarize themselves with.
He also said that consumers and business employees should calltheir Secret Service branch office if they are suspicious of abill.
"We maintain a database of all known counterfeit notes in theUnited States. Occasionally, a new note will surface, but Memphisisn't an area where that happens a lot," he said.
There's no U.S. currency note to date that has been counterfeitproof, said Verdeyen.
"The new features have significantly lowered the amount ofcounterfeit passed in the United States," he said.
The United States Secret Service released statistics showing adecrease from $48.7 million in counterfeit passed in 2001 to $38.2million passed in 2003.
"We saw a huge decline despite the fact that there was $116billion more in genuine U.S. currency circulating in 2003 thanthere was in 2001," said Verdeyen.
