Officials in Ocean City are warning merchants to take a harder look at their cash counterfeit bills have begun to make the rounds through the shore town.
Since June 18, there have been 10 cases of counterfeit money being used to pay for everything from food to amusement rides, police say. The most recent find came Tuesday.
The counterfeiters have been using a pretty ingenious way to fake the bills by using real money to increase the cash's value, officials say.
The crooks take a low-value bill -- like a $5 note -- bleach out the ink and then reprint a higher value onto the paper. This allows the bills to pass traditional counterfeiting tests like pen tests, officials say.
The new bills are printed at much higher prices like $20, $50 and $100 and that cost is passed along to the merchant when they try to deposit the cash in the bank.
“It is a shame because unfortunately, we’re the ones that pay the price,” says Brian Hartley from Playland’s Castaway Cove.
Police say they're not sure who's making the bills, but they think there are plenty more on the street. Officials in nearby Sea Isle City say they've seen similar bills this summer season.
"We believe they’re innocent people who are passing them on to our merchants who may have picked them up at another business," said Ocean City Police Lt. Steve Ang. “As the equipment gets more sophisticated, you’re going to see more and more of this.”
Lt. Ang says the counterfeit bills may be much harder to spot, but if you hold it up to the light a ghosted image of the previous bill should show through.
