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What would you do with a dodgy note?

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  • buses7675
    buses7675 Posts: 837 Forumite
    Hi All,

    I work in a shop and handle notes a lot. As stated earlier you get to be able to just 'tell' fakes from looking at them, though we do also have a UV scanner for scanning all notes so if you don't spot it on the first look you get this too before even opening the till.

    In the past when customers have come in with fakes, often I reckon they know as they'll try and buy something small - usually with a £20 - when you tell them its fake, they don't argue and go off to get more money - but never return!

    Same sort of thing with false £1 coins, though these are usually easier to spot as they are often painted very badly so they are duller than normal. You can demonstrate they are fake too by scraping some of the paint off to make it obvious! Similarly some fake £2 coins are the same, with the outside painted - sometimes not even perfectly around the mark for the centre section!

    As someone said too, does the SA in Tescos or whereever have to pay up themselves if they get handed a fake? In our place it is a small shop and I've never knowingly taken one in myself, but seeing as we've got a UV scanner there would be no real excuse for taking one in - unless it 'passsed' that test yet was still false.

    Cheers

    Steve
    completed Uni in 2004 without any student debt - woohoo!
  • MarkyMarkD
    MarkyMarkD Posts: 9,912 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Stooby wrote: »
    The intent to steal was not there when recieveing the dodgy note in change.
    Rubbish. The intent to steal is when you deliberately pass the fake note to someone else in exchange for goods, not when you receive it - in that case the intent is by the person passing to you. Obvious really. :rolleyes:
  • freebird65
    freebird65 Posts: 1,751 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    This is a tough one for me.....I've always considered myself very honest, blah, blah, blah....

    Some years ago, whilst not earning very much, I went and cashed my wages cheque in at the bank my agency had an agreement with and went to pay most of the proceeds into my bank account. One of the notes was rejected as a forgery and even though I explained where I had got it (Barclays!) and showed them the receipt from just a few mins earlier, I was told the note would have to be confiscated and passed to the police.....oh and tough luck to me as I had just lost what amounted to half my rent for the week as I would NOT be reimbursed (despite running back to Barclays and begging and pleading).

    I was left with having to beg loans from my mates to save being handed an eviction notice and I never did get reimbursed for that note. So a bank passed me a dicky note and got away with it. Would I do the same? Dam* right I would!

    Sorry.
  • JDAdams
    JDAdams Posts: 26 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 18 July 2012 at 10:39PM
    I would pass it back only to the place I got it from, that would only be fair, anything else would be theft.

    Also FYI, if you are an SA it is illegal for your employer to take any fake notes, amounts missing from the till etc. from your wages.
  • grayme-m
    grayme-m Posts: 1,484 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Not sure what I'll do next time I get a dodgy note.

    Last year - when I was a final year mature nursing student and as skint as I've ever been in my life - I drew £40.00 from a local cash machine. As I put the two £20.00 notes in my purse it was obvious that they were made of the wrong type of paper - they were far to thick. As the cash machine was part of the Royal Bank of Scotland I immediately took the notes in there. The notes were examined and I was told it was nothing to do with them as they were Clydesdale Bank's notes. Therefore I immediately walked over to the Clydesdale Bank and presented them there with the honest explanation of how I had come by these notes. My name and address were taken and about ten days later I received a very curt letter saying that as the notes were fakes they had been destroyed.

    All well and good for everyone except me who had lost what amounted to two week's food budget for myself and my son.

    Who said honesty pays? Would I be so honest in the future? ........... ?????????

    I've heard anacdotal evidence that banks often put fake notes out into cash machines and some posting on this thread backs that story up.

    So if I was ultra honest and took a fake note to a bank, would they keep it (would they all swap it like LloydsTSB?) and then pop it out again into the cash machine? :think:

    Banks dishonest, surely not...! :whistle:
    Toyota - 'Always a better way', avoid buying Toyota.
  • MarkyMarkD
    MarkyMarkD Posts: 9,912 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    ATMs are not filled by the bank staff with random £10 notes that have been handed in by dodgy customers. The cash cassettes are loading at a central cash depot, using notes that have been checked using sophisticated machinery which detects dodgy notes and rejects them. It also sorts out damaged and worn notes because they jam up the ATMs and consequently make them unavailable to customers.

    So, no, they don't do what you suggest grayme-m.

    You are far more likely to get a dodgy note over the counter of a bank than from an ATM.
  • grayme-m
    grayme-m Posts: 1,484 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    MarkyMarkD wrote: »
    ATMs are not filled by the bank staff with random £10 notes that have been handed in by dodgy customers. The cash cassettes are loading at a central cash depot, using notes that have been checked using sophisticated machinery which detects dodgy notes and rejects them. It also sorts out damaged and worn notes because they jam up the ATMs and consequently make them unavailable to customers.

    So, no, they don't do what you suggest grayme-m.

    You are far more likely to get a dodgy note over the counter of a bank than from an ATM.

    What about elliethecat's experience though?

    ...and okay, if they are not putting them in the atm, are they handing them back over the counter... ;)
    Toyota - 'Always a better way', avoid buying Toyota.
  • Just a couple of points - bank staff do not examine notes sent to them for the ATMs (they don't have time) though they do exchange creased and torn notes if they spot them because they jam up the machine. If they spot a counterfeit note it is the law that they must confiscate it and take the presenter's name and address. We feel sorry for people who have ended up with them - my 16 year old son was one of them.
  • emily_jackson
    emily_jackson Posts: 1,695 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker I've been Money Tipped!
    i'd destroy it. i can't believe there's so many people on here who would spend it!
  • aleman
    aleman Posts: 10 Forumite
    pass it off £20 is £20
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