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Clifford Lo

A home-made tool resembling a meat tenderiser is being used by counterfeiters to create a security feature on fake 100 yuan banknotes, police say after studying almost 4,000 of such bills seized this year.
"An investigation found that an instrument with spikes was used to pound images of the counterfeit notes so that the bills would have an embossed effect," a police source said.
Many of the forged bills Hong Kong police seized also carried other security features such as watermarks and had different serial numbers, the source said. Other notes did not have any security features.
"The quality of bogus mainland banknotes is considered poor to average," the source said, adding that people could easily identify the forged bills if they paid more attention.
The source said there had been a minor increase in the number of fake renminbi notes seized this year, but that "the overall situation is stable and not alarming".
Latest figures showed that 4,426 counterfeit mainland notes were seized from January to October, of which 3,937 were fake 100 yuan bills. There were 4,070 fake 100 yuan notes seized for the whole of last year, and 4,884 in 2010.
Police said most of the forged notes were brought back by Hong Kong people after they visited Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other cities in Guangdong province.
One of the most common scams involving fake notes is "money swapping", where victims receive fake notes when paying a fare to unlicensed taxi drivers on the mainland. The cabbies switch the passengers' genuine notes with fakes before returning them, saying they are counterfeits and insisting that the passengers pay them with other banknotes instead.
"They even pretend to offer victims help by checking other notes in order to switch more bills," one police officer said.
Some victims told police that their genuine notes were switched for counterfeits or they received fake notes in change while eating and shopping on the mainland.
Police said more cases tended to surface after long public holidays, and they urged people to be careful when travelling on the mainland during the Christmas and New Year festive period. "Residents should not take unlicensed cabs and should be especially careful when making payment at eateries and shops on the mainland," the officer said.
Meanwhile, more bogus HK$1,000 bills were seized this year, police said. A total of 943 were seized in the first 10 months of the year, compared with 328 for the whole of last year and 220 in 2010. A total of 726 fake HK$100 notes was seized in the first 10 months of this year, compared with 1,806 for the whole of last year.


Meat tenderiser used to create security feature on fake banknotes

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Hong Kong