ChicagoJordan
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- Sep 16, 2009
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I went to the Subte this morning to purchase a new 10 ride pass and quickly found out that I was trying to spend counterfeit money. I think a cab driver gave me the fake bills. Luckily, I had enough real money to get the 10 trip pass but it was definitely an eye opening experience. I have never been given counterfeit money, that I am aware of, in any of my travels. Luckily, there were only a couple counterfeit bills so the damage was minimal.
My Argentinian cowokers sympathized, said it has happened to them before as well. They gave me a list of things to look for:
1. Did you pay a 10 peso cab fare with a 100 peso bill? Be sure to check out all the bills you receive back, especially if the driver gives you change in many smaller denominations. There may be a fake bill somewhere in the middle of the stack. Dont feel like you are inconveniencing the cab driver by sitting in the cab and examining the bills, even if there is traffic honking behind him. Pulling over in a spot he knows people will honk at him may be part of the scheme to make you feel pressure to exit the cab without looking through your money. Do not succumb to the pressure - you have a right to sit in the cab and make sure the money is legit - he/she can pull off to a side street if the traffic behind you is not happy.
2. The fake watermark in the fake bills are actually very easy to spot. Hold a bill up to the light. You will see a fairly detailed image. A fake bill also has an image but it is much less detailed. It is much easier to see this if you actually have a fake bill to compare a real bill against. The fake image is actually laughable when you compare it to a real bill.
3. Real bills have raised/textured areas. In particular, at least one of the numbers on the bill is raised/textured (the top-left number on the face side of the bill). All of them may be as well, not sure. You can feel the texture of the number if you rub your finger (fingernail works better for me) over the number. The fake bills dont have this texture anywhere and are very smooth to the touch.
4. The paper fake bills are printed on is convincing but it is relatively easy to spot when compared side by side to a real bill. This is true with the fake bills I received but there may be better counterfeit bills out there. The paper looks much closer to standard 8X11 paper but more convincing. I dont know what they did to the paper, or what type of paper it actually is however it is convincing until you compare it side by side to a real bill.
5. Radio Taxi is good. My Argentinian coworkers seem convinced that it was not a Radio Taxi driver. Im not sure what kind of taxi it was but they seem pretty set on the fact that it likely was a non-Radio Taxi vehicle. I will heed their advice to take Radio Taxi cars only.
The mustard pick pocket. A buddy of mine was here and thought a pigeon pooped on him. It turned out to be mustard - he had no idea where it came from. He was a little upset, scanned for a mustard source briefly and began cleaning the mustard off his head/shirt. At some point during the realization and reaction processes he was pick pocketed. A little insult to injury I guess. The lessons I am taking from this are 1) 'secure' your money in your pockets as well as possible 2) recognize that something else may be going on if mustard/mayonnaise/ketchup/<insert fluid> begins falling out of the sky or suddenly ends up on your person.
A lot of common sense but sometimes the day to day hustle makes use gloss over the basics.
Any other stories/suggestions on ways to prevent counterfeiting/pick pockets would be great to hear!
Jordan
My Argentinian cowokers sympathized, said it has happened to them before as well. They gave me a list of things to look for:
1. Did you pay a 10 peso cab fare with a 100 peso bill? Be sure to check out all the bills you receive back, especially if the driver gives you change in many smaller denominations. There may be a fake bill somewhere in the middle of the stack. Dont feel like you are inconveniencing the cab driver by sitting in the cab and examining the bills, even if there is traffic honking behind him. Pulling over in a spot he knows people will honk at him may be part of the scheme to make you feel pressure to exit the cab without looking through your money. Do not succumb to the pressure - you have a right to sit in the cab and make sure the money is legit - he/she can pull off to a side street if the traffic behind you is not happy.
2. The fake watermark in the fake bills are actually very easy to spot. Hold a bill up to the light. You will see a fairly detailed image. A fake bill also has an image but it is much less detailed. It is much easier to see this if you actually have a fake bill to compare a real bill against. The fake image is actually laughable when you compare it to a real bill.
3. Real bills have raised/textured areas. In particular, at least one of the numbers on the bill is raised/textured (the top-left number on the face side of the bill). All of them may be as well, not sure. You can feel the texture of the number if you rub your finger (fingernail works better for me) over the number. The fake bills dont have this texture anywhere and are very smooth to the touch.
4. The paper fake bills are printed on is convincing but it is relatively easy to spot when compared side by side to a real bill. This is true with the fake bills I received but there may be better counterfeit bills out there. The paper looks much closer to standard 8X11 paper but more convincing. I dont know what they did to the paper, or what type of paper it actually is however it is convincing until you compare it side by side to a real bill.
5. Radio Taxi is good. My Argentinian coworkers seem convinced that it was not a Radio Taxi driver. Im not sure what kind of taxi it was but they seem pretty set on the fact that it likely was a non-Radio Taxi vehicle. I will heed their advice to take Radio Taxi cars only.
The mustard pick pocket. A buddy of mine was here and thought a pigeon pooped on him. It turned out to be mustard - he had no idea where it came from. He was a little upset, scanned for a mustard source briefly and began cleaning the mustard off his head/shirt. At some point during the realization and reaction processes he was pick pocketed. A little insult to injury I guess. The lessons I am taking from this are 1) 'secure' your money in your pockets as well as possible 2) recognize that something else may be going on if mustard/mayonnaise/ketchup/<insert fluid> begins falling out of the sky or suddenly ends up on your person.
A lot of common sense but sometimes the day to day hustle makes use gloss over the basics.
Any other stories/suggestions on ways to prevent counterfeiting/pick pockets would be great to hear!
Jordan
Yes, worth double-checking every bill and also do it at the bank. I have gotten bad bills from an ATM 2x (once it was a fake, once it was ripped so unusable).
