Anyone who handles cash in three North Sound counties is being warned to take a second look at big bills before accepting them.
Police in Island, Snohomish and Skagit Counties are on alert for counterfeit cash, after learning $150,000 in fake bills could be circulating there now.
>> How to spot fake bills as counterfeit possibly passed in North Sound
Mount Vernon grocery store clerk Stephanie Birtchet says she always checks security features in big bills she receives, because she says a customer already tried to pass her a fake $100 bill.
"It just felt weird and the line wasn't all the way visible, and I couldn't see the (president's) face," she said. "It looked old and wrinkly and so I told the customer that I couldn't take it."
Secret Service Special Agent Robert Kierstead told KIRO 7 his office receives a million dollars in bad bills every year, and he warns that some counterfeits, at a glance, are hard to spot.
"Some bills are sophisticated, some made with printers or office copiers. You can spot them if you look for security features, which are difficult for them to copy," he said.
Kierstead said the majority of the fake bills the agency receives locally are twenties. Overseas, the hundred-dollar bill is the most circulated counterfeit. He said next to the security watermarks visible when held up to light, the hardest part of a real bill to duplicate is the paper.
"The crane paper company in Massachusetts makes it out of cotton and other fiber," he said. "Some (counterfeiters) even try bleaching-out smaller notes to try and print over them," he said.
Kierstead said the twenty dollar bill has two obvious security features anyone can spot within a second. "You can hold a bill up to the light and you can pick up the second portrait, the offset watermark portrait of President Jackson."
Kierstead is encouraging anyone receiving larger bills not to accept anything they find suspicious.
"Unfortunately, if you are the last person holding the bill, you're out of the money," he said.
Cox Media Group
