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With counterfeit money a major issue no matter where businesses are, money counters are useful and effective tools to get fake bills out of circulation. Vigilance is necessary to stop people from passing bills that are fraudulent, defrauding businesses and causing them to lose money on false sales. With these machines, retailers are able to quickly identify a false bill, especially those in larger denominations. Furthermore, they're able to determine key features of the bill that indicate a common pattern. This can help law enforcement identify an operation in progress and cut it off before it seriously damages the regional economy.

A single bill identified by cash counters can help spot current operations

Counterfeiting operations take many different forms. Some are crude, using just an inkjet printer and key cartridges. Others have a significant amount of complexity and involve printing presses, special plates and considerable efforts to pass off key security features as authentic. However, a single flaw overlooked by criminals can easily expose an operation. This is a bigger issue if the bill in question shares this same feature over multiple copies or is glaringly obvious.

Police in northern North Carolina and southern Virginia want to break up a counterfeiting operation that covers a wide swath of towns in the area. According to local ABC affiliate WTVD, the fake bills first spread in early June at various stores in Roxboro, North Carolina. Several weeks later, suspects in Dinwiddie County, Virginia passed five $100 bills at two Food Lions, only to follow with someone doing the same several hours later at a Wal-Mart in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Later on, police arrested three men attempting to pass counterfeit $100 bills at three different businesses in Hudson, North Carolina.

What connects all these cases is the fake $100 bill itself: All of the false bills in each case possess the same exact serial number. This indicates a larger operation in place throughout the region, especially given that the authorities were looking for more than the three people that were arrested in Hudson. As a consequence, heightened vigilance is necessary for retailers in this area, especially around the use of large bills in payment transactions. With money counters, stores can quickly identify these bills, especially if they raise suspicion. Many of these machines can analyze counterfeits and determine common elements that make them fake. This helps retailers stem the tide against counterfeiting.