Press Release: Counterfeit $100 Dollar Bills Being Passed In Pocomoke Made From Actual Washed $5 Dollar Bills

Release Date: December 11, 2015

Incident Type: Counterfeit Money Scam in Pocomoke, MD Using Washed Money to Reprint $100 Bills

Pocomoke City, MD – December 2015 – Chief William Harden would like to make local businesses aware of counterfeit money scams being perpetrated in Pocomoke, MD. Someone is passing off “washed” $5 dollar bills as $100 dollar bills. The bill has the look and feel of real money because it is an actual $5-dollar bill that has been washed of the mint ink and replaced with a color photo copy of a $100-dollar bill to the front and back of the bill, so the counterfeit marker pins will not show the paper as fake. There are, however, several telltale signs that the $100-dollar bill is fake and actually a $5-dollar bill. If you hold the $100 dollar bill up to the light, you will see the ghost image of Lincoln rather than Franklin and the sewn in security thread strip running vertical on one side of the bill says $5-dollar bill rather than $100-dollar bill. The real bills also have color shifting ink used in the numeral on the lower right corner of the face of the note, change color when the note is viewed from different angles. The ink appears green when viewed directly and changes to black when the note is tilted. There may be other denominations being washed and photocopied, but the fake $100 bills printed on real washed $5 dollar bills are what have been recovered so far.

Pocomoke Police ask that you contact the police department if you receive such a counterfeit bill of any denomination that does not match the above security features for the face value of the money and get a good description or identifiers of the person passing the money, a license plate and what they are driving if possible. You may notify us anonymously as well if anyone knows who may be passing this counterfeit money in our community.