Public Warned of Counterfeit Bank Notes Bearing a Genuine Security Feature

News Release

Ottawa – August 8, 2007 – The RCMP Bureau for Counterfeit and Document Examinations (BCDE) is issuing an alert after identifying an increase in counterfeit Canadian bank notes which bear a genuine holographic stripe taken from authentic currency of a lower denomination.
The BCDE has confirmed that the counterfeit money contains actual holographic stripes which have been removed from Canadian Journey series $5, $10 and $20 notes and then glued onto poor quality counterfeit $20, $50 and $100 notes. To further the scheme, the criminals have tried to take the genuine notes from which they have removed the holographic stripes to banks for replacement.
The majority of incidents have occurred in Alberta although there have been others in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.
Law enforcement and the Bank of Canada are urging vigilance in detecting these types of counterfeit bank notes. The public and merchants are being asked to watch for bank notes which bear a genuine holographic stripe but for a lesser denomination than that of the actual bank note. For example, the note may have a genuine holographic stripe with the numeral 5 appearing on a counterfeit $50 bill. The same is happening for the numeral 10 appearing on a counterfeit $100 note. The culprits are also pasting $20 holographic stripes on counterfeit $20 notes, and then trying to return the damaged yet genuine $20 bill to the bank.
Bank note security features are easy to recognize by touching, tilting and by looking through the note. Both merchants and the public are encouraged to routinely check their bank notes, not only to protect against loss, but also to prevent counterfeits from entering circulation.
Information about security features is available through the Bank of Canada website
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For more information please contact:
RCMP Media Relations
(613) 993-2999

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Public Warned of Counterfeit Bank Notes Bearing a Genuine Security Feature

News Release

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