Cross-border travellers warned on fake banknotes
Police say 22pc more 100-yuan forgeries seized last year
Hongkongers travelling to the mainland should watch out for fake yuan notes, police said yesterday, as the number of bogus 100-yuan notes seized rose by about 22 per cent last year.
But there was no need to panic, the police's counterfeit expert said, as the quality of fake renminbi notes - even the latest batch seized of so-called high quality notes - were far from good.
Acting Chief Inspector John Yuen Kam-leung said: 'The public should be on alert, but they don't need to worry.'
Forgeries can be detected by the lack of security watermarks and other features (see graphic). Unlike real notes, they are mostly made by offset printing, police said.
Notes withdrawn from local banks are safe, because banks use devices to detect fakes, police said. There is also no evidence any local money changer is circulating fake yuan notes in the city.
On the latest batch of fake notes seized, Chief Inspector Yuen said they bore 10-character serial numbers starting with either HD90 or HB90 and - though they incorporated all the security features - were of poor quality.
'The watermark in the forged notes is blurred and the image does not look alive,' he said.
Even if the note's serial number does not start with either HD90 or HB90, it could still be a forgery. 'After printing a large quantity of bogus yuan under the same serial number, counterfeiters will make another lot of fakes under different serial numbers,' he said.
Police said there were 10,314 counterfeit yuan notes last year, up 14.7 per cent from 2007. Among those, 29.2 per cent of the fakes notes bore serial numbers starting with either HD90 or HB90.
About 83 per cent of the fake notes were in 100-yuan denominations. Last year, 8,569 fake 100-yuan notes were seized, 22.3 per cent more than the 7,007 discovered in 2007.
Police said the number of fake yuan notes had surged because the renminbi has become more popular in Hong Kong since 1997. More department stores and shops are also accepting the currency.
Police urged Hongkongers to be careful when travelling on the mainland of the common scam of 'money swapping', in which genuine notes given in payment for something were replaced by fake ones returned as change.
Chief Inspector Yuen said travellers should be especially careful when making payment to unlicensed cabs, and at entertainment outlets such as massage centres and restaurants.
He said Dongmen in Shenzhen was considered a hot spot for such crimes.
Edwin Shiu Man-chak, the director of Ngau Kee Money Changer in Sheung Wan, said some money changers in Hong Kong had refused to accept the so-called high-quality fake 100-yuan notes.
He said he uses cash detectors in his shops that cost between HK$3,000 and HK$6,000.
He said his staff could tell whether a note was fake or not by touching the bill or by using a cash detector.
