Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Businesses may have been stung by teenage counterfeiters

A recent influx of high quality counterfeit bills circulating around Whistler has prompted some local businesses to take extraordinary action.

A recent influx of high quality counterfeit bills circulating around Whistler has prompted some local businesses to take extraordinary action.

In some fast-paced environments where cashiers do not have the time to inspect every bill, businesses have stopped taking $10 bills altogether.

A 15-year-old Whistler secondary student was arrested on March 2 for allegedly making and distributing counterfeit $10 bills with the old design. On March 6, a ring of Richmond high school students were arrested for allegedly turning out copies of new $10 bills on an ink-jet printer. The youths, aged 12 to 18, allegedly charged other students $10 for $30 in counterfeit currency.

According to Jody Wright, the Manager of Customer Service for the Marketplace TD Canada Trust branch, they have collected more than $500 in counterfeit bills spotted by tellers in the last few months.

"Definitely it’s up," he says. "We saw mostly $10s in the last month, and every now and then we’ll see a $50 or a $20. We definitely know where they’re coming from – they’re doing it on advanced printers, at school or at home."

According to Wright the fakes are easy to spot for people who work around money, and the banks continue to train staff to be on the lookout for new counterfeit variations. He doesn’t believe the bank has accepted any counterfeit money.

Bank customers, on the other hand, have not been as lucky. According to Wright, forgers and bill-passers target Whistler because businesses routinely employ foreign workers that are not as familiar with Canadian currency, and are less likely to spot phoney bills.

"I think that people would also be less likely to second guess a $10. A counterfeit $20 wouldn’t have been as successful, and people look at $50s pretty hard," he says. "Also counterfeiting the old $10s was also successful because after a while people forget what they look like."

Wright says that the number of counterfeit $10 bills turning up has almost completely tapered off since the arrest of the individual in Whistler and the ring in Richmond, although he doesn’t doubt that more are probably floating around out there.

Although it’s concerning that high school students are capable of producing counterfeit bills capable of fooling cashiers, Wright says counterfeit bills are less of a concern these days than counterfeited cheques.

The new $10 bills have more security features compared to the old bills, and TD Canada Trust has stocked up on a brochure by the Bank of Canada called Detecting Counterfeit Currency to help their clients.

The local Royal Bank branch has also experienced an increase in counterfeit activity as of late, and has the brochure readily available to customers and clients.

"For clients that do come in with counterfeit money, if they don’t know how to spot it, we’ll educate them on how to look for it in the future," says Jennifer Lyon, the assistant branch manager.

"Our own staff is very educated on it. If we actually come across any counterfeit money, we’ll show it to all the staff so they can see and feel what it looks like."

Lyon doesn’t know how much counterfeit money has been intercepted by the Royal Bank in recent months, but all of it was turned over to the RCMP.

"There’s no doubt that it has been an ongoing problem for businesses."

Both Nesters Market and IGA have posted signs saying they were not accepting $10 bills, and the Whistler Grocery Store has increased training for their staff.

"We’ve been pretty lucky this year, though it’s because of good training for our staff," says Grocery Store Manager Rob Sage. "In my understanding, a lot of other businesses haven’t been as lucky."

The store does not use any counterfeit spotting technology, like black lights, because he says they create a false sense of security.

"They have to get a hands-on feel," he says. "We were stung with a couple of bills this year, so we went through a complete training session. A couple of weeks ago, one of our cashiers caught a counterfeiter."

Sage says it has also been valuable going to the banks every so often to find out what’s going around town. The RCMP also conduct a good seminar.

"Training is the only way to stop it. The people who are out there on the front lines and see the bills, you have to put your faith in them," he says.

Even the Bank of Canada has admitted that the new forgeries can be very accurate at times, and some of the faked bills can even pass the ultra violet light tests being used.

As a result, many stores around the country are no longer accepting $50 or $100 bills.

The CBC recently did a story on the security features found on the new banknotes:

• Raised ink is used for the words "Bank of Canada," the portrait on the bill, and the coat of arms;

• Iridescent maple leaves, coat of arms and security fibres that glow red under a UV bulb. The paper itself will not glow under the UV lights.

• The metallic patch changes from green to gold when tilted, and cannot be peeled off;

• Green dots appear randomly on bills, and can be scratched off;

• The fine lines in the eyes and hair of the portrait can’t be easily duplicated by printers without showing fragments;

• Each bill has a different serial number on the reverse side. When you receive several bills, the numbers should be different.

• On the $10 bill a hidden ‘10’ can be seen in the purple stripe just behind Sir John A. Macdonald’s head.

• The golden maple leaves shimmer when the bill is tilted.

For more information on counterfeit bills, visit the Bank of Canada Counterfeit Detection site at www.bankofcanada.ca/en/banknotes/counterfeit/.