Counterfeit bills have been popping up in local stores and around the community. Police are urging caution.
Lac La Biche RCMP aren’ t laughing about some funny money that’ s surfaced in the community. In fact, they are issuing a serious alert to residents and business owners about the counterfeit Canadian currency that has been circulating.
“We have three or four files on the go,” said Lac La Biche RCMP Sgt. Steve Genereaux. “We want to send a caution to residents, shoppers and especially businesses to be wary.”
The notes that have been discovered in the last week are fairly easy to identify as being fakes.
Not only are they missing the security details like the clear plastic, but there is another telling feature.
“They have big Chinese symbols written on them,” said Genereaux, adding that despite what might seem like an obvious fake, the bills might get missed in busy transactions or within a small stack of notes.
“If they are mixed in with other bills, or folded over, or if it is busy at the till .... We just want the public to be aware,” he said.
It is believed the bills were found through the online store Amazon. Genereaux located an image of one of the bills from an online website. He said the same bills have been involved in scams in the Edmonton area over the last year. He said so far there have been denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 circulated in this region.
A maximum fine for creating and using counterfeit currency can be as high as 14 years in jail according to Canadian law.
Local police say they do have some information on suspects, but are continuing to investigate.
