Lead Bank announced it discovered fake $100 bills handed to them by business customers in the Crossroads this month.
On July 1, the bank used a Crossroads Community Association email bulletin to alert the neighborhood.
Lead banker Patrick Unrein told 41 Action News the bank found two $100 bills with the same serial number and a third using a differing counterfeiting technique.
Lead Bank notified Secret Service upon discovery.
Anton’s Taproom owner Anton Kotar says fake cash enters the Crossroads revenue stream about once a year. He posted the fake $100 serial number at each register in his restaurant hoping his wait staff will be vigilant in looking out for the counterfeit cash.
“It’s always different. Last year at this time they were washing bills, so if you used a pen on it, it looked like a $100. It was a $5 but it turned yellow anyways because the paper was real,” said Kotar.
Kotar says he’s found two fake bills in two years using a specialized counterfeit detecting machine that looks for a color-coded strip and watermarks. With 96 percent of restaurant transactions using credit or debit cards, $100 bills stand out.
“When you get a $100 bill, you look at it pretty hard,” said Kotar.
But with counterfeiters using sophisticated techniques, it’s not always easy identifying the fake money.
“No one wants to take bogus money, but we try hard not to, but in today’s technology it is hard to determine some of it,” said Kotar.
Not all businesses are aware.
If a Crossroads business doesn’t bank with Lead Bank and doesn’t get the Crossroads Community Association bulletin, it may not even know the counterfeit cash is being used in the area. That was the case with Extra Virgin and one tattoo shop in the arts district.
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Brian Abel can be reached at brian.abel@kshb.com.
