HIGH denomination bank notes are being eyed with scepticism in Bedford after several local business people have been conned with forged R200 bank notes recently.
According to Bedford SPAR owner, Karen Tait, last month they had four or five fake notes passed off as the real thing at their tills.
“We are now more careful to check R200 notes that are tendered,” Tait said.
Holding a genuine R200 note up to the light that had a small portrait of Nelson Mandela visible just under the code number, and facing the leopard image she said, “This is what identifies a genuine note.”
Shirley Pruissen at Border Vet was incensed when she discovered she had a forged note in her cash box.
Garth Bishop at Sugar Shack fast food eatery lost a total of R800 from fake notes.
Bishop’s staff told him of one incident where a young couple who wanted to buy a R10 ice cream apologised for not having change and offered a R200 note.
The staff member innocently handed over R190 in change, never thinking to check the note that she had been given in payment.
Our reporter popped in at a local bank where the teller explained that an ATM will accept a forged note, recognise it and put it to one side in a canister. The machine credits the account only with the genuine notes. In the case of cash deposits at the counter, the notes are all run through a machine which recognises and ejects false notes.
The teller photocopies the fakes and fills in a form. The depositer goes away the poorer, carrying only the photocopies and the duplicate of the form.
The actual notes and the top copy of the form are handed over to the police. The bank teller said that confiscating forged notes was necessary to stop them from circulating.