Or did she just get confused about who gave her the bad $20? And did she get an extra tip?
I know this guy, he’s done some casual labor for me a few times. A few years ago he was stony broke w/ all these bills coming in that he couldn’t pay. He decided it would be funny to send his creditors Monopoly money, as a way of demonstrating that he was broke. He’s really a funny guy, if not the brightest bulb on the tree. So he returns several of these bills w/ the appropriate amount of Monopoly money enclosed. A few weeks later the county sheriff’s deputies show up at his door and arrest him. He eventually appeared before a judge, who chewed his ass out and put him on probation for a few months. I think the DA figured out that he was just a bit simple minded and not intent on defrauding anybody.
Seriously, if you got it from the bank, I’d try to screw them back and deposit it in an ATM with other bills, and if they catch you claim ignorance, unless they can remember you from asking about it before.
I have mailed such bills to the SS before.
You definitely don’t want to keep it. I’m pretty sure that just possession of a bill that you know is fake is a crime. Its contraband material, like drugs.
I’d also harass the bank manager into compensating you for it. If you’ve had an account with them for a long time they really should. There isn’t too much you expect from a bank so not distributing counterfeit money would be something I wouldn’t tolerate. If individual citizens are expected to be on the lookout for fake bills (and essential we are) a freaking bank sure as hell is too. Even if they didn’t do it on purpose they’re not a Pizza Hut or a gas station, they’re a bank for Christ’s sake! They’re the last place that should pawn a fake $20 off on someone.
I would be surprised to learn that one of the various counting machines used at banks does not also scan the serial number. Seems like a very easy thing to do…
I agree with vertizontal.
The bank has no way of knowing that the note came from their ATM, other than the word of the customer. (Especially 5 days after the transaction). Its only responsibility in such a case would be to advise the customer to report the note to the Secret Service.
Former bank teller here.
Anyone presenting a counterfeit bill takes the loss, not the bank. There is no proof of where that bill came from. There was no optical scanner in the ATM nor was there any record of serial numbers of bills in an ATM.
Our policy, and probably the law, was to confiscate it, fill out a form, and turn the bill over to the Secret Service. I cannot fathom giving the bil back to the presenter.
If you deposit a counterfeit in an ATM, there is a higher chance of it being discovered than just giving it directly to a teller as part of a deposit inside the bank. This is because ATM cash deposits are more likely to be counted by two people and not just one teller. Either way, if it is discovered, the customer will not be credited with the deposit.
That simply does not happen. Have you any idea how many bills pass through a bank daily?
Many modern bill counters do have counterfeit detection, but not all of them. When they encounter a counterfeit, they stop and notify the operator. However, if the bill counter doesn’t catch it, there’s a decent chance that the ATM won’t either.
I find it a little more likely that the fake originated with the pizza girl than with the ATM. Sounds like a relatively easy way to make some money on the side when you’re an underpaid pizza delivery person. You deliver pizza, customer pays with (real) $20. You go to car, wait, then come back with a fake $20 and tell the customer they gave it to you. Customer exchanges it for another real $20. Pizza person now has an extra twenty in addition to the payment for the pizza.
And then do what with all those serial numbers?
Compare it to something? What?
The Treasury does NOT publish a list of all the valid serial numbers on all the millions of bills in circulation. I doubt they even have such a listing. Besides the massive size of such a list, it would be incredibly useful to counterfeiters – a list of valid numbers to put on your fakes.
About the only useful thing the bank could do is record all the serial numbers (creating a huge file), and watch for a duplicate one coming in. And then you know that either this bill is a fake, or the one that came in a few days ago was a fake. Again, not much use.
You’re missing something. If the OP merely claimed that the 20 came out of the ATM the teller could match the serial number of the fake with all the serial numbers that actually came out of the machine. If there is a match what are the odds that it didn’t come from that ATM? Conversely, if it didn’t match the serial numbers of any bills in the ATM then the OP should have been detained.
And I’m also in the group that thinks the Pizza girl swindled you, or whomever at the Pizza shop planted it (could have been the manager - he planted the 20 then told her to get another real one from the OP).
You people watch too many bad TV shows and movies. The local Pizza Hut is the center of a counterfeiting ring? What next, they’ll blow up a train as a first step in a convoluted plan to shoot down Air Force One in a remote area so that they can get the briefcase with the nuclear missile codes?
Once PH accepted the money, it was unfair of them to try and exchange it, but I’m guessing, in a much more plausible scenario, that a bonehead manager told PH delivery girl that he was docking her pay for accepting the counterfeit, and she had to try something. What would she have done if that was your only money? Basically, no one wants to be the one left holding the bill, because they are out the money, though the bank most assuredly did not follow proper procedure.
Mr. Slant, after 2 decades, I can’t remember the brand. I just remember that we had 3 upstairs and 1 downstairs (vault), and were happy when we didn’t have to move them around. And also happy when 2 machines came up with the same number.
Or, they could save thousands of dollars and countless man-hours and just do what they did, only retaining the bill and telling the OP he was out of luck.
If that were the case, all somebody would have to do after withdrawing $100 is to make 5 counterfeit bills with the same serial numbers as the real ones, and claim they were the ones from the ATM. Obviously, it wouldn’t work, but that’s why it’d be a waste of resources to do.
Billions. The current money supply in circulation is $800 billion, more or less.
Imagine how wasteful it would be to scan every single bill as it passed into or out of a bank.
It was probably a Glory, which IMO was a piece of crap. We used to have them at work, but no one used them because they were just worthless. We switched to Cummins-Allison JetScans about 7 years ago, and they are so much better.
Even if the PH manager had not explicitly mentioned counterfeits, she might still have been freaked out by the $20 and want to get rid of it. (that’s exactly what happened to my mom that I mentioned in my other post, the girl at the grocery had taken it, was scared and passed it on) That’s why the OP should go to the SS. They’ll talk to the bank and the PH girl and, if it was her, figure out where she got it from. Counterfeiting is taken very seriously and they will try to track the bill all the way back to the source.
BTW, our bank was not concerned about detaining anyone. We would ask where you got the bill and put it in the report. Otherwise, it was no big deal and you were just SOL about the loss of money.
So the lesson learned is: Only try to pass the counterfeit money on to your local drug dealer or bartender. They usually don’t have the pen marker or take the time to check the bill for authenticity. Or so I’ve heard.
Good point!