After a wave of counterfeit money downtown, at least two Concord store owners have decided to stop accepting $100 bills going into the holiday shopping season. One of those owners will not be accepting $50 bills, either.
“It’s just not worth the risk,” said Aaron Letendre, manager of The Works Cafe in downtown Concord, where cashiers will not be accepting $50 bills or $100 bills in the near future.
The Works was not among the at least three local businesses who were hit with false $100 bills earlier this month. Letendre said the cafe made the decision not to accept the larger bills just to be safe.
Gibson’s Bookstore, Crust and Crumb Baking Co. and Revelstoke Coffee all received false bills. They didn’t find out the bills were fake until they tried to cash them at Merrimack County Savings Bank, the store owners said.
Store owners said the bills were $1 bills that were bleached and redesigned as $100 bills. Because they were on the correct paper, they were not detected using counterfeit banknote detection pens, which apply iodine-based ink to bank notes to determine their authenticity.
Police say there is an ongoing investigation into the counterfeit money. Sgt. Matt Casey said he could not provide information about how many false bills were disseminated in Concord, but he said that the issue spans beyond the downtown area.
Casey said Concord police deals with issues of false currency fairly regularly, and that the issue is “nothing serious to worry about.”
Casey and Manchester Secret Service Agent Timothy Benitez held a town hall with Intown Concord for local businesses to learn about false money and how to detect it.
Benitez said people are purchasing counterfeit money online – usually, either money bearing foreign characters or motion picture prop money. The motion picture note and the foreign writing note have some indicators on the face of the bill that they are counterfeit. Motion picture bills usually have a note that says, “For motion picture use only.” Foreign currency bills have foreign language characters on the face of the bill, in addition to English.
Benitez said authorities have been investigating a counterfeit currency operation running out of New England where $1 bills are being bleached and redesigned as $100. Benitez said counterfeiters almost always use older versions of the $100 to replicate, because they have fewer security features.
He said there has been an uptick of activity around counterfeit bills in New Hampshire in the last six months. However, even though some fake bills can be quite convincing, there are usually small indicators that they aren’t the real thing. Some counterfeiters place a black mark on the corner of fake bills so they can tell their real and fake bills apart, for example.
“A lot of these notes that we see, with a little delay before accepting them, you can usually identify that they’re not genuine,” he said.
Downtown Concord store owners said they have been communicating with each other about educating their staff to look for the signs of false currency.
Michael Hermann of Gibson’s, who is no longer accepting $100 bills, said he was hit with counterfeit money twice earlier this month.
“When our staff member took them to the bank they just shook their head and said, ‘I’m sorry you’ve been hit,’ ” he said. “It’s a loss to the store. I just didn’t want to have to put that burden on my booksellers.”
“All businesses struggle, and when you lose money in that kind of fashion it’s significant and aggravating,” he added.
Revelstoke owner Alex Stoyle said his coffee shop will still be accepting $100 bills, but only the newest model of the bill, which has the most security features.
Stoyle, along with other store owners on Main Street, said they had never had any issues with counterfeit money before then.
“Our philosophy in general is to trust people and let them prove us wrong,” Stoyle said. “Unfortunately, we have been proven wrong in this specific scenario.”
Alison Ladman, who owns Crust & Crumb, said her business will no longer be accepting older versions of $100 bills, unless she is at the store to personally examine the bill.
Gondwana & Divine Clothing owner Pam Peterson and Sue McCoo, who owns Capitol Craftsman, The Viking House and Hilltop Consignment Gallery, said they each spoke to their staff members to make them aware of the issue and educate them about signs of counterfeit money.
“We are just being a little bit more careful. We’re just all paying more attention,” McCoo said. “If something looks funky, we’re just not taking it at all.”
Diana Johnson, spokesperson for Merrimack County Savings Bank, said bank officials reached out to the authorities as soon as store owners tried to cash counterfeit bills. The bank posted a pamphlet to educate people about counterfeit money on it’s Facebook page.
“We want people to be aware of the issue, and to be careful,” Johnson said.
Dawn Triconi, executive director of Intown Concord, said solving the issue is about awareness.
“It comes down to education on all fronts – just be aware,” she said. “If you do see any fraudulent use, contact the Concord police or the Secret Service. Be aware of the money you receive. When in doubt, go to the bank and test it.”
“Between Black Friday, Plaid Friday, Small Business Saturday, and the following week is Midnight Merriment, there’s a lot of people who are going to be doing their shopping. It’s sad that its the season where they are out in force,” she added, about counterfeiters.