Pittsfield-when Bonnie Marks, co-owner of the Plant connector, He did what he thought were two new friends in his store, he never imagined that he would cost him $ 100.
On Wednesday, two women with a baby visited their store in 46 West St. The three conversations about plants, with brands sharing care tips and even for free plants.
However, the connection that felt sour when he went to Berkshire Bank the next day and discovered that the invoice of $ 100 that one of the women had given him was falsified.
“As the owner of a business, it hurts financially, and I have been walking all day really sad about that, because I thought I had made a new friend,” Marks said.
But she was not alone.
Dana Robb, Vice President of Retail Banking and Operations in Pittsfield Cooperative BankHe said that falsified invoices have been going around the Berkshires, and the bank detected three cases in the last month: two $ 100 tickets and an invoice of $ 20. Although no one has been arrested in these cases, local banks and companies share warnings about falsified money.
Falsified money is a false currency that is made to look like real money, but it occurs illegally. It is designed to deceive people and companies to accept it as a genuine.
Robb explained that when a falsified bill at the banking level is detected, the cashier must take the bill and send it to the Secret Service in Boston for review. If the invoice is legitimate, the bank reimburses the client. If not, the customer loses the money, just like Marks did.
Marks had warned other small businesses in the area that the falsified invoices were spinning. This led Dare Bottleshop & Provisions, the husband of the co -owner of Mary Daire, to go to the bank to obtain some tips on how to recognize the counterfeit invoices.
Then, last Friday morning, two women delivered Dare Bottleshop and provisions Mary Daire an invoice of $ 100 for an article of $ 7.
The bill seemed legitimate, had the high emerald strip in the middle, and the woman took him out of a bank, but Daire said that something still did not feel good.
“Us [decided] We are not going to run the risk because there was only something that did not join, “said Daire, who later told women that he could not accept the bill.” It was very convincing money. That is what was really alarming. “
The women left the store in 11 Housatonic St. in Lenox, claiming that they needed to get a credit card from their car. But when they did not return, Daire called the Police and alerted neighboring businesses. Unfortunately, it was too late, a nearby store that prefers not to be appointed the bill, which the police confirmed that it was falsified.
The Lenox police chief Stephen O’Brien said the officers could not find the suspects, but according to the New England State Police information, two women with a similar description were reported using falsified invoices in Connecticut in early February.
“In general, people move from city to city trying to get rid of their invoices of $ 100,” O’Brien said. “So we took out an ‘being attentive’ throughout the county with the description they gave us.”
To verify if an invoice is legitimate, people must pay attention to the sensation, safety characteristics and print quality, as Daire did, Robb said.
“You should be able to feel something of that high ink that is used in that bill. It’s not perfectly soft, ”said Robb. “A legitimate bill has the small red and blue fibers integrated within the bill, [and it is] Very clear. ITS printing is very clear. There are no spots … there is no blur. “
However, Tina Martin, Vice President of Security and Fraud Research in Berkshire BankHe said there are also several tools that small businesses can use to identify counterfeit bills.
Although it is the most profitable, Martin does not recommend using pen detectors. The pen recognizes if the fabric of which the currency is made is correct. Then, if a criminal whites an invoice of $ 1 and makes it an invoice of $ 100, the pen will not detect that it is falsified.
The pen must also be changed every two months because once the ink dries, it can give false positives, he said.
However, a UV light can detect when an invoice has been washed, Martin said.
“The currency actually has strips through the invoice, and each strip is colored differently by the denomination and is placed differently on the invoice,” he said. “In general, UV lights destined to validate the currency will have a small sticker that says that is where it is where it is where [each] Bill Strip is, and will actually make the strip shine. “
On the high -end side, there are cash recycling machines and currency counters that have incorporated technological detection.
Martin also warned that companies should look for money from the film, which is usually seen real at first glance, in addition to a label that says “use of the movie Solo” or a similar phrase.
“That is one of the things that people will also try to approve, especially in a small store where they are not paying attention to invoices,” Martin said.
Robb emphasized that companies should really make their due diligence and stay educated in fraud tactics so that they can recognize red flags.
Looking back, Marks now sees that what happened was probably an intentional scam: the woman paid a small purchase with a big bill, and her friend enrolled in the rewards program while she declined.
“He just didn’t connect with me, but you have to take this into account [stuff]. As a small business, it is a great success for us, ”he said. “I’m already $ 100 low today.”
The incident has led Marks to reassess whether his store should already accept effective, although eliminating it completely can be harmful to his business. Instead, he is considering rejecting only $ 100 and $ 50.
“We need to take effective [as a] Small businesses, because it is the only thing that helps us approve the credit card rates, which are 3 percent of our business, ”said Marks. “If we had to get rid of the cash completely, it would probably increase $ 3,000 to our expenses per year. It is killing enough. “
As the owner of a business, Daire said that having falsified money in circulation decreases its confidence and can create very uncomfortable situations in such a united community when the owner of a business has to reject a purchase if the customer does not realize that his invoice is falsified.
“Put our local economy in danger and degrade trust,” he said. “So, innocent people can end with falsified money who do not realize that they are using.”
However, Daire appreciates Marks’s warning and the support of the community of small businesses.
“Perhaps the positive side in these unfortunate types of situations is only reminded us [of] The strength of the community and monitor each other, ”he said.