Chinese counterfeiters’ banknotes prove so good they fool detection machines
Police arrest 14 suspects who had reportedly printed fake money with a face value totalling 4 million yuan and posted in to buyers across the country
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.
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.
The gang had reportedly posted the high-quality counterfeit banknotes, with face values of between 1 yuan and 100 yuan, to buyers across the country using express delivery services, the report said.
Officials were surprised to discover that the fake money had been produced using printers as well as other simple tools, one police officer was quoted as saying in the report.
Most of the fake money could not be detected by the public, while even some machines built to identify counterfeit banknotes had failed to spot them, the report said.
