Chinese counterfeiters’ banknotes prove so good they fool detection machines

Police who seized fake banknotes was a face value totalling more than 4 million yuan (HK$4.8 million) found some copies were so good that machines used to identify counterfeit money could not detect them, mainland media reports.

Police also tried to spend some of counterfeit money to see how readily it was accepted and found that 80 per cent of fake notes with a face value of 20 yuan or less were not noticed by shopkeepers and other traders, the Beijing Morning Post reported on Thursday.

Last month police in the city of Xuzhou, in Jiangsu province, carried out an raid against criminal gangs producing counterfeit banknotes for use in the area and other provinces including Hubei, Shandong and Henan.

Fourteen suspects were arrested as part of the investigation, which was launched in January after reports that counterfeit banknotes with a face values of 20 yuan and 50 yuan had been spotted being used at an agricultural market Xuzhou.