The Waco Police Department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are warning the public about counterfeit money being passed in the area.
Since April 25, 2017, Waco police have seen at least 15 reported counterfeit money cases.
The counterfeit $100 bills either have Chinese writing on them or “For Motion Picture Use Only."
“It’s pretty obvious when you look at it that this isn’t a real U.S. government bill,” Sgt. Patrick Swanton, a Waco Police spokesperson, said.
“However, people aren’t paying attention. So they will go to the stores and try to buy items with this" he added.
When it's not obvious a bill is counterfeit, Scott DeFord, the resident agent in charge of the Secret Service Office in Waco, suggests you look for color-shifting ink rather than the watermark.
"Like on the hundred, they have a bell on there that you can go back and forth and it changes colors and so does the hundred on the bottom right-hand corner," DeFord said.
DeFord said he does that because some counterfeit money-makers use chemicals to make smaller bills blank and then print bigger bills on them. That means the watermark will not match the pictured president. However, he said, many people do not pay enough attention to that.
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