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The One Dollar Counterfeiter

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Re: The One Dollar Counterfeiter

#141

Post by 9935c101ab17a66 »

chuckadams wrote: post #59
Uvix wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But there is no such thing as a “genuine” $30 bill.

If it's being passed off as money, then someone thought it was. I don't think the Secret Service cares if it's an invalid denomination or has Bozo the Clown on the front. Probably not a high priority for them given the overall lack of believability, but the attempt is what counts.

I don't think that the parent comment is making the case it's not a crime, but rather that it's not specifically counterfeiting. There comment reads as playfully snarky to me, since, when discussing counterfeit currency, we almost always take counterfeit to mean "to make a fraudulent replica of".

It's still fraud, and an attempt to deceive.

Re: The One Dollar Counterfeiter

#142

Post by madaxe_again »

shrx wrote: post #126
noduerme wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the only places you can change a €500 note are outside of Europe.

what?

Nobody will accept a €500 note in Europe - not even banks - you have to get it changed at a central bank, and you can expect a lot of questions, like “what kind of drugs did you sell to get this?”

An easier option if you have one, is going to a forex office in Vietnam or somewhere - and even then they may not take it.

I was lumbered with a couple of them for a few years, until I dumped them in Uruguay.

Re: The One Dollar Counterfeiter

#143

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

Wingman4l7 wrote: post #140
Ylpertnodi wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate speding dollars. All the bill sizes being g the same, and the colors similar. Too easy to make mistakes. I feel for the blind...how do they cope?

In the US, IIRC they have a trusted person sort the bills by denomination for them -- like a friend or a bank teller -- and then they fold them into different orientations so they know what they've handed to a checkout clerk. No way for them to prevent being shortchanged, unfortunately.

I guess technology could help though - this would be a great application for smart glasses.

Re: The One Dollar Counterfeiter

#144

Post by IAmBroom »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #67
hankerapp wrote: post #60

Slightly off-topic, but the first time I saw a (real) 2-dollar bill, I almost called the Secret Service on a customer. Was then educated about the legality of 2-dollar bills.

So you're the person that called the cops on that guy at Best Buy?

There's a legendary Reddit story about such an incident at Taco Bell's.

Ignorance is not a rare trait.

Re: The One Dollar Counterfeiter

#145

Post by IAmBroom »

dennis_jeeves2 wrote: post #68

Moral of the story: It's ok for the govt to print as many notes as is needed to satisfy the govt's needs needs but it is not ok for the common Joe to do the same. One is labeled as inflation or quantitative easing and the other is labeled a crime

The US does not pay its bills with printed cash.

Money is actually generated by changing the interest on, and selling, bonds.

Various governments can, and many have, done what you describe, but banking in this day & age is about moving digits in a register, not shipping truckloads of $100-bills.

Re: The One Dollar Counterfeiter

#146

Post by kelvinjps10 »

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #56
dnnddidiej wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If $1 is $19 I am suprised more people didnt check that their $1 notes are legit back then. Story makes it sound like $1 was chump change.

Do you check the $20 bills the ATM spits out, or just stuff them in your wallet and spend them?

Mmm I don't even check the 100$ ones from the ATM why wouldn't you trust the bank?

Re: The One Dollar Counterfeiter

#147

Post by eru »

tux3 wrote: post #27
seabass-labrax wrote: post #13

> 10 years went by and the search for Mister 880 turned into the largest and most expensive counterfeit investigation in Secret Service history. The article doesn't explain why the Secret Service made this their biggest case, and it doesn't make much sense to me. If the dollars were accepted by the general population, it would cause an infinitesimal increase in inflation of no consequence to others. And if shopkeeper…

The state reserves some of the harshest punishments for counterfeiters, since large scale counterfeit operations is one of the few crimes that is an attack on the state itself. The US secret service was originally created specifically to combat counterfeit money, it's no surprise that they would keep tracking this man for a decade. This man is unusual because he did the tiniest amount of one the most severely punishe…

> The state reserves some of the harshest punishments for counterfeiters, since large scale counterfeit operations is one of the few crimes that is an attack on the state itself.

Which is pretty ironic, given that the state need not be involved in providing physical cash at all.

Re: The One Dollar Counterfeiter

#148

Post by noduerme »

jrumbut wrote: post #138
gobdovan wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Tanzania specifically, the $100s were fine. The weird pricing seemed driven partly by perception. It was usually street vendors who would say $1 bills were worth 2000 shillings (~84 cents), while the larger banknotes were fine. Other vendors would charge X shillings or Y dollars, and when you did the calculation, it would be about 70 cents per dollar. I had crisp $1 bills and asked them why they discounted $1 bill…

Or there's an efficient market and when you mail yourself 9,999 $1 bills and take them to the bank you find out 30% are counterfeit.

Or street vendors see an American and immediately mark up their price by 30%. If it were me I'd walk away.

Re: The One Dollar Counterfeiter

#149

Post by noduerme »

madaxe_again wrote: post #142
shrx wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what?

Nobody will accept a €500 note in Europe - not even banks - you have to get it changed at a central bank, and you can expect a lot of questions, like “what kind of drugs did you sell to get this?” An easier option if you have one, is going to a forex office in Vietnam or somewhere - and even then they may not take it. I was lumbered with a couple of them for a few years, until I dumped them in Uruguay.

Yeah, it's truly strange because up until around 2012, I used to pay my rent with €500 notes when I lived in Spain. Just go down to the bank and get them. Then there was some sort of crackdown on drug smuggling and no one would touch them. Barbaric, rather fascistic or communist way of dealing with a social problem, since of course this means normal people can't pay rent in cash anymore without a ton of bills, and the only real purpose is to track so much more of the casual, unofficial economy. Drug dealers do find ways around.

Re: The One Dollar Counterfeiter

#150

Post by IIsi50MHz »

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #143
Wingman4l7 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, IIRC they have a trusted person sort the bills by denomination for them -- like a friend or a bank teller -- and then they fold them into different orientations so they know what they've handed to a checkout clerk. No way for them to prevent being shortchanged, unfortunately.

I guess technology could help though - this would be a great application for smart glasses.

Some countries chose different physical sizes and/or embosed bumps in the corners.
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