“I just read that a bunch of counterfeit $100 bills have shown up in Bay City,” Treviño said Tuesday morning.
He said banks in that community had identified 21 of the bogus bills just recently.
Police recently were called to one of Beeville’s banks after eight counterfeit $100 bills turned up in a deposit made by a local convenience store.
Seven of the bills later were traced to a woman who used the bills to pay for a car. She said she had gotten the bills from a friend.
Treviño said the bills are not being identified as counterfeit until they get to the bank.
“They are being printed on regular currency paper so they don’t show up as counterfeit when the clerks mark them with an identifying pen,” the chief said.
About the only way to determine that the bills are not legal tender is to check the watermark inside the paper.
The watermarks are incorrect on the face of the bills, Treviño said.
The chief said it is possible that a counterfeiter was able to get some of the legal tender paper.
He is urging all clerks and cashiers at local businesses to carefully inspect each $100 bill they receive.
“I would recommend that anybody who receives a suspect $100 bill, hold onto it, keep the customer there and call the police immediately,” Treviño said.
That way the police can trace the origin of the bill to some extent at least.
“The person or business which accepts the phony bill for payment takes the loss,” the chief said.
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