Shoppers and businesses warned of counterfeit money this Holiday season

Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s are warning shoppers and businesses of counterfeit money after finding more than $1,000 at a hotel in Aptos on Sunday.

While many shoppers have opted to pay for their items with credit cards, businesses are still being warned to check the bills.

On Sunday, Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s responded to a domestic violence call, while investigating they say they found more than $1,000 in fake cash and a counterfeit bill printer.

Sheriff’s are now taking the time to warn others, “just another reminder for businesses to be cognizant of the fact that there are people that potentially counterfeit money. In this case we found that, and to take whatever precautions you can, from the pens to making sure all security features to the denominations are all there,” says Sgt. Chris Clark.

Owner of Fleet Feet in Aptos says while most of his customers pay with Credit Cards, that is still in the back of his mind. “Absolutely it’s still a concern, luckily for us we don’t actually see a whole lot of cash come through. So we never want anything to get stolen from us obviously but most of our transactions are credit card and so we try to look out for any kind of fraud,” says owner Eric Rogers.

Rogers says they do have to worry about gift card and credit card fraud. They also recently had a nearly $6,000 dollar piece of racing equipment stolen from a work car outside of their Aptos business.

Itsel Gonzalez, owner of Cali Couture Boutique in Soquel says her store has been hit multiple time with counterfeit bills. “We’ve had a good amount of it, especially during prom season and the
holidays. We had hundreds twenties, tens and fives,” says Gonzalez.

Now Gonzalez says their store takes extra precautions, “At the end of the day we check all the cash that comes in, the fives tens twenties and hundreds and anything over $40 is credit card automatic, we don’t take any cash barely.”

There are some ways to check if bills are counterfeit. The $10 note includes an embedded security thread that glows orange when illuminated by UV light. When held to light, a portrait watermark of Alexander Hamilton is visible from both sides of the note. The $100 note also includes a portrait watermark of Benjamin Franklin that is visible from both sides of the note when held to light.

Real bills also have a texture to the cloaks of the presidents that you can feel when you run your finger across it. For more tips on identifying counterfeit bills click here.