New scam: ‘Your money is fake, Sir!’
September 4, 2008
Have you ever experienced paying in, say, a shop or restaurant and the cashier told you your money is fake?
PMT member denshow10 had the exact same experience when he dined in a Pizza Hut branch last week. When he paid, the cashier told him the bill he was using did not have the names of the Philippine President and the Bangko Sentral Governor on it and, therefore, it was fake.
In the Fake Php 1,000 bill discussion thread, another PMT member mokoy222 mentioned that this may just be the modus operandi of a swindling gang. He knows this because he himself was also a victim.
His story:
He once shopped in a mini-grocery and when he paid the cashier, he was told the bill he was using was fake. Although perplexed how this could have happened, he simply replaced it with a new bill and left. The next day, his uncle went to the same grocery and when he paid, he too was told his money was fake. He was surprised because the money came directly from a bank’s ATM.
Weeks later, they learned that the cashier and grocery store owner were apprehended by the police. Apparently, the modus operandi was for the cashier to replace a customer’s bill with counterfeit money from a pile of fakes hiding under the counter. The suspects got caught because the police found many customers complaining about the same scamming incident from that grocery store.
So when paying in a shop or restaurant, be vigilant when the store cashier takes your cash. Otherwise, you might be the next victim of the “Sir, your money is fake!” gang.
Discuss this and other “fake money” stories in the Fake Php 1,000 bill thread in the PMT Forum.
September 4th, 2008 at %I:%M %p
dapat ipako sa krus ang mga yan!
September 4th, 2008 at %I:%M %p
naku kakatakot naman yan..
dapat careful tayo..hirap na nga ng buhay dami pa manloloko..
September 5th, 2008 at %I:%M %p
Mabuti’t hindi ako nabiktima.
September 10th, 2008 at %I:%M %p
ang maniwala kasi sa sabi sabi, walang bait sa sarili hehehhehe
October 30th, 2008 at %I:%M %p
I got victimized by this scenario too. I went to a Select Store after filling up so I can buy myself a Ferrari Key chain dito sa Lores Shell Station sa Antipolo.
The owner waas very nice and we talked for awhile about the collection. I handed over the receipt and the 100 peso bill to the cashier. All the while talking to the owner. then shortly afterwards, the cashier tells me, sir fake po itong bill ninyo.
Very surprised and embarassed, I I look at it and observed na torn yung bill and indeed it was fake. So I replaced it and left for my car.
Inside the car, I talked to my wife who gave me the bill and asked her if she noticed if the bill she gave me was torn because I can not remember if it was hwen she handed it over to me. Although, I am sure that I should have felt the texture of the bill if it was fake, but I did not.
When she told me it was not torn, nagduda na ako and went back into the store. Now the owner said, ok, we can check anyway may camera sa store. So we reveiwed the footage. But the problem was, the camera was showing me facing it and the cashier had her back to the camera.
if the switching occured sa side ng cashier, we could not see it. So I left apologizing again.
But when I got home dahil the Yaya at home was actually the one who received the money from a neighbor who bought something from us, she was sure that this was not the money she submited to us.
Lesson? never take your eyes off your money when paying the cashier till she puts it inside her cash register.
January 8th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
Grabe! It is really frustrating how people with bad intentions always find ways to con others. In my case, it is me who ended up having the “fake” money in my wallet, Here’s how it went: I was in a queue at known fast food chain to take a lunch. The counter is accommodating two lines at a time. I am on the left side of the line. Beside me, on my right is a guy queued on the same counter as I am but he is the right line. Nothing unusual about him, except that I noticed he is perspiring quite heavily which I just connected to the hot weather outside. Suddenly, he turned to me and said that he was only there to buy soft drinks and that he has a Php500 bill which he plan t o use in paying for the drink. He asked if I can change it to a smaller bill so it will be quicker for the cashier to just give him a loose change once his turn came. It happened that I have enough P100 bills and so I did what “a good Samaritan” can do on occasions like that. After the bill exchange, I casually put the Php 500 bill in my wallet. When I got my food and went to a table (I did not use the bill in paying the cashier as I have enough smaller bills on my pocket. I noticed that the guy did not bother to proceed to the counter and instead left immediately. That’s when I sensed something is wrong. So I checked the bill he handed me and gave it a second look. That’s when I noted that something is not right with the bill but that time I was not so sure if it is really a fake. I tried looking around for the guy outside the restaurant but he is already gone! After finishing my lunch, I went to a shopping mall and bought some gifts for my son’s birthday. Having a hunch that the bill on my hand is a fake, I politely asked the cashier to first check it using the infrared money detector. True enough, it was a fake! I felt really frustrated to myself being a victim of a very simple “modus operandi” out of just trying to accommodate a request & be a good doer for somebody. Ingat po para sa lahat! Note: I posted the fake Php 500 bill in our company’s Information Board to alert everybody about the circulating fake bill.)
April 1st, 2009 at %I:%M %p
what a f@%k!!!