Unfair fares: million yuan in fake coins paid to bus firm in China
Bogus coins regularly dropped into collection box on buses in Chongqing, says report
Travellers using a bus firm’s services in a city in southwest China used the equivalent of at least 1 million yuan (HK$1.15 million) in fake cash over the past decade to pay for their journeys, according to a newspaper report.
The company in Chongqing has destroyed game tokens, iron rings and even fake money offered to the dead equivalent to that amount that were passed off as one yuan coins in fares over the years, the Chongqing Morning Post reported.
An official in charge of the South Bus Company’s cashier department said strange coins turned up every day when they cash up. On Monday alone they counted 200 fake “coins”, the report said.
Most were coin tokens used in games.
Every day about 40 staff are needed to count up coins paid as fares and five stay behind to mend damaged notes for at least an hour.
The official was quoted as saying there were coin boxes that could identify fakes thrown in, but they were not completely accurate.
