I lost a little bit of faith in humanity today, but I’m taking the high road. I am writing this in hopes that you will not be the one on the receiving end of a counterfeit.
On Monday, my 17 year old daughter went to a Buckhannon, WV, bank drive-through to get her paycheck cashed.
Flash forward to Wednesday evening… She got in her wallet to pay for something and discovered that the $100 bill she got from the bank didn’t feel quite right. The paper didn’t feel like money. Upon further inspection, she noticed the writing on the money, “For Motion Picture Use Only” and the blue stripe was just ink, not the silky thread that is normally weaved through (see pictures below).
She Facetimed me in a panic and turned the camera around so I could see the money. Sure enough, it was a fake. I asked if she was sure it came from the bank. Absolutely, 100% sure. That’s the ONLY $100 bill she had – makes sense to me, she’s only 17. Luckily she caught it! It’s hard to say what could have happened if she had tried to spend it somewhere!
Now, what to do? Take it back to the bank? Call the bank? Take it to the police? Notify some other authorities? I wasn’t sure what the proper procedure was.
I told her to put the bill in a plastic bag and to not touch it any more than she already had. I also told her she should document on a note everything she remembered about the check cashing process – date, time, which drive through lane she used, which teller it was, which teller booth, etc. She still had the return cash envelope where the teller had written the amount of the cashed check. “Great, we have the handwriting of the teller also,” I thought. This should be easy to trace and explain with all of this documented.
So we made the decision that I would meet her at the bank this morning when they opened at 9am. After asking the inside teller if there was a manager on duty, we were welcomed into the bank manager’s office. We explained everything above and provided the documentation and the envelope from the transaction. Then we waited while the manager went to “take care of it”.
The manager returned a while later with disappointing news. There was nothing they could do because it is against their bank’s policy to make an exchange on a counterfeit (albeit passed to the customer from the bank) since the customer had left the bank prior to notifying them of the issue. The bank manager said they would file a report with the Secret Service and send them the counterfeit bill. Good! I did not want to be in possession of a counterfeit $100 bill – no way.
You’re probably thinking the same thing I was, “don’t they have cameras and couldn’t they review the footage”. Yep, but nope. Yes, they have cameras, but they aren’t able to detect the denomination of the money, nor the writing on the bills to determine it is a counterfeit. Well, great. Sounds like a good reason to invest in some better security camera equipment.
Not pleased or satisfied with these results and left feeling like it wasn’t taken as seriously as I thought it should be, later today I called the local Sheriff’s department and spoke with a deputy. He said he would investigate, but unless there was suspicion that someone at the bank was passing the counterfeits deliberately, there was nothing they could do. There has to be some intent involved for it to be a crime.
Well, you guessed it – the teller has no complaints against her and the bank does not think this is some internal operation. I asked, “Is the bank not held to a higher level of accountability and have an obligation of due diligence in presenting actual money to their customers?” “No,” was the answer I received. Hmm, okay.
So here we are. We are out $100.
I am taking the high road by not slamming this bank by posting their name publicly – but, I can tell you I’d like to. I’m sure the bank manager was just following policy and orders from higher ranks. The manager seemed sincere in apologizing that there was nothing more they could do.
I am most disappointed with the bank not recognizing the circumstances around the transaction and taking responsibility for their mistake. A policy that forces a company not to do what is morally right is a bad policy, in my opinion.
So yes, I lost some faith in humanity today. We tried to do what was right with admitting that it was Monday that she had gone through the drive through and was just reporting it today after realizing the fake last night; with not just trying to pass it off to someone else; with not plastering all over Facebook that “ABC BANK” passed her a counterfeit; with providing as much detail as possible to try to remedy the situation, etc.
I am especially disappointed, after talking with other banks’ officials who said their bank would have handled this differently and kept their customer. Remember when the customer was always right?
A big question I have that I posed to the deputy – With this becoming more prominent in the community, would there be any possibility of your sheriff’s office doing a public service announcement through the newspapers and social media? I don’t think the public understands that this really does happen in Buckhannon, WV. And like me, they wouldn’t know what to do, should they discover a counterfeit. A little public education on this topic would go a long way.
I appreciate the deputy taking all the information about the situation and investigating with the bank. He seemed concerned and expressed his regret that we were out the $100.
In the end, I guess we all learned a lesson about making sure to count and check our monies from the bank, or anywhere else, no matter if there is a line of traffic or people waiting behind us.
It does happen in little ole Buckhannon, West Virginia, so it could happen anywhere. According to the deputy, this is a known issue that has been happening for a while in Upshur County. It’s not just $100s. They have had reports of $5s, $10s, $20s and $50s, also.
Check your cash, folks. I’m going to get one these counterfeit detector pens.
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Below is a picture of the counterfeit my daughter received:
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