06.22.07
I must have a chip in my ATM card which says “Give Me Fake Money!”
It happened again…I was having lunch at Fuzhou’s newest (and only) Indian restaurant today, and after receiving the bill, I handed the waitress a 100 RMB note from my wallet. A few minutes later, she meandered back to my table, handed my 100 back to me, and using the typical face saving protocol kindly asked, “Do you think you could give me a different bill?”
Knowing exactly what she was implying I felt the bill in my hands. “Wow, this is definitely a fake.” I told her. “I had no idea. Sorry about that.” She smiled back at me and I gave her a new bill.
 |
| One of these bills is real, and the other is counterfeit. Both came from ATMs. |
The bill in question had come from an ATM. This is not the first time I have received fake money from an ATM in China, nor the second, nor the third. It’s the fourth time in three plus years. At this rate, the Bank of China is probably distributing more fake money per year than the Parker Brothers. The general rule of thumb in China is that if you receive fake money, you must say so before you walk away from the transaction. Otherwise, it is your own responsibility (read: fault). Therefore, it is not uncommon to have your money turned down for various reasons, even if it is real. Last week a cab driver refused to accept a 100 from me because a chunk, literally smaller than one square centimeter, was torn of one corner. On several occasions I have been the victim, or the attempted victim of hit and run fake money scams, usually involving taxi drivers with fake 50’s.
I like to group counterfeit money incidents into two groups 1) my fault and 2) not my fault. The last time I received fake money was from a Chinese fast food （快餐）joint where I was having lunch. I did not realize that the 50 RMB note they gave me as change was fake until I tried to deposit it at the bank and it was confiscated. This instance was my own fault since I accepted the bill and walked away without saying anything. This is the way things are done in China, and I am more than willing to play by the rules so long as I can use the rules to my advantage when it is appropriate.
However, I find it hard to deem myself responsible when fake currency is dispensed from a state run bank. I must add that since my last episode with fake Chinese money, a Chinese friend has clued me in on how to report it if you catch fake money coming from an ATM. Apparently if you count your money while standing in front of the ATM, and receive a fake, you can call the police from your cell phone. If you do not move away from the ATM until the police come, the security camera images will then provide ample proof that your counterfeit currency came from that particular ATM. This seems like a feasible solution assuming there isn’t a crowd of people waiting behind you to use the same ATM. In a country of 1.3 billion people, this is rarely the case. Personally, I have no problem examining my currency whenever I am handed change from an individual, but I do not think I am out of line when saying that this step should not be necessary when using state run banks’ ATMs.
However, the most annoying part is not the fake money itself, but the fact that no Chinese people believe me that a Bank of China ATM could give me fake money, even though it has happened 4 times now (counting one from the Agriculture bank) in 3 plus years. “That is impossible.” “Counterfeit money doesn’t come from banks.” “Somebody must have given that to you.” “You are a foreigner, you just don’t know the difference.” These are the kinds of responses I get. The reason I am positive all of these fake notes come from ATMs is that 95% of all the 100’s I use come from ATMs. There is no bill larger than the 100. I usually go to the ATM, withdraw 800 RMB (since it is mentally like 100 U.S. dollars), and then break those 100’s down into change as I buy things. Whereas fake 50’s often come from change, this is impossible with a 100, since it is the largest denomination of Chinese currency. Every time I have received a fake 100, I have traced it back to an ATM.
I doubt that Chinese ATM’s are sophisticated enough to dispense disproportionate amounts of fake currency to foreigners, but you never know. Has anybody else been getting fake money from ATM’s lately or have even the ATM’s now been trained to specifically rip off the lao wai?
Ron Frost
said,
June 22, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Crazy counter-suggestion: it was not the bank but the waitress that was ripping you off. If she left the table and came back a few minutes later, she probably had chance to switch the bills, which is more likely than the ATM (which should have built in fake-checking systems) giving you a dodgy note. I’ve never had fake money from an ATM but I’ve definitely been given it as change.
Handan
said,
June 23, 2007 at 12:08 am
Haha, yeah, looks like the machines’ fool enough to let fake money out but smart enough to discriminate lao wai against natives.
My first thought was, all ATMs should simply have embedded fake money screener. The machines at bank counters do counting and examining simultaneously, so there shouldn’t be any technical problem for setting up effective self-check function within the ATM.
But then, I realized it’s not at all a technical problem. The real question is, how did fake money got fed into the ATM? What’s the source?
If anyone can provide an instince where you take a fake money to the counter for deposit and it was accepted, it’s easier to answer the question. Anyone there?
Or, the automatic deposit machines could be blamed. I’ve heard warnings against drawing from those dual use teller, as it might have taken fake money from depositers. I’ve yet to find a fake 100 note to see if the auto deposit machine has no examining capability. Any proven case out there?
Now, if these two possibilities don’t hold, we really need to be bold to come up with explanations. Could it be undercover fake money mafia members working in the bank sneaking fake money into ATMs through regulatory loopholes? Or maybe the whole thing is a state run operation to keep the currency value low, Ben?
p.s. I’m a Chinese and I believe you could get fake 100 from ATMs.
ash
said,
June 23, 2007 at 12:08 am
How do you know the waitress didn’t pull the old switcharoo with some funny money she had of her own and got you to swap it for a good one?
Ive had a taxi driver do it to me before!
ym
said,
June 23, 2007 at 1:08 am
i would be no hesitate in taking the money away without check before i read this post! Your experience gives me a thought about the ATM,that is,ATM was no oppugnly honesty,the staff of the bank must be blamed!!!
I have to be more careful in using the ATM FROM NOW ON!
John
said,
June 23, 2007 at 1:33 am
This is the same with me! Anyt time I have a fake 100 I know that it must come from an ATM (BOC or ICBC) because this is the only place that I receive 100s! I think that those very same cameras at the ATM have laowai face recogition so that they know when to distribute the fake 100s!!!!
Wei
said,
June 23, 2007 at 8:17 am
I really really don’t understand Ben’s statement “…a few minutes later, she meandered back to my table, handed my 100 back to me…” How do you know it was “your” 100? Did you mark it? Did you note down its serial number ? Did you keep an eye on her during these few minutes ? Even in the US you can’t absolutely trust the waiter who took your credit card away for “a few minutes” can you? Don’t give me this of-course-I-can-because-it’s-in-the-US reflex, I know how it is like there. But I won’t say it’s an American problem if I get caught in.
东南罗
said,
June 23, 2007 at 8:17 am
My first thought was also that, it was the waitress, specially since you said she went away, and came back few minutes later. You could have tried the ~chinese banks policy~ with her… that is, if she didn’t notice the fake 100 right away, then it was her own problem… Kidding about this, but seriously, i do believe it is more likely to have been her, or maybe the cashier, rather than the ATM.
Benjamin Ross
said,
June 23, 2007 at 9:42 am
Interesting theory about the bill being swapped by the waitress. It is certainly plausable, however my gut and experience is still telling me it was more likely from the ATM. It probably is true, however, that I could have told her that since she accepted it at first and walked away, there was no proof that the bill she brought back was the same as the one I handed her. However, this is quite typical of upscale restaurants, where they walk off with your money first. I think the idea is that they do not want to stand there checking for fake currency right in your face.
maxiewawa
said,
June 23, 2007 at 9:52 am
Same in Shanghai, restauraunts don’t check money in front of you. Nice ones anyway.
I’m with almost everyone else on this thread. If she came back saying the note was fake, I’d say no way, you walked off with my money, tacitly agreeing that it was real.
Some restauraunts here provide waiters with small blacklights, so that they can discreetly check for the embedded watermark.
I’ve never got a fake 100 from an ATM.
chriswaugh_bj
said,
June 23, 2007 at 11:05 am
Up here in Beijing ICBC has gotten itself a reputation for dispensing fakes from ATMs, at least that’s the rumour I heard. However, I’ve never received a fake from an ATM. Maybe because I never use ICBC. As for the deposit machines, the Bank of Communications machines reject any note that looks maybe even just a little suspect because of its age, so I’d trust those machines.
I sure as shit would not just give the waitress a new note without complaining loudly about it in a situation like that in the restaurant. Smells like the old switcharoo to me.
Matt Schiavenza
said,
June 23, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I’ve also never gotten a fake note from the ATM (knocks heavily on wood), though I only really use Bank of China which tends to have a somewhat golden reputation among China Banks. Actually, I haven’t had an issue with counterfeit money at all since Lianyungang, so I must be lucky. I’m not even particularly vigilant and don’t know how to tell counterfeit notes from real ones.
francis
said,
June 23, 2007 at 3:33 pm
I’ve also never gotten a fake note from ATM’s. I don’t even check when i withdraw money from them! So i would say it’s most unlikely or it was just a rare case which unfortunately occurred to you. However, i would not believe that all the fake notes you got were from ATM’s. It’s just impossible according to my experience.
martin
said,
June 23, 2007 at 3:59 pm
what i sometimes do (when i have time..) is to mark an X with pencil con my 100 bills..
mostly cuz i always take like 2.000 until i spend it all.. and then i get more money..
羲
said,
June 23, 2007 at 6:00 pm
haha ,I come here a first.
I am very nice to into your blog
welcome to my country!
Lily
said,
June 23, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Definitely, it is the waitress, not ATM give you the fake bill…
cantcheckemailnopw
said,
June 23, 2007 at 9:34 pm
4 times in 2 years I have been asked for a different bill. I only get 100s from
the ATM. Even if I mark them, do you think that would get your orginal note
back from someone doing a switcharoo?
Austin
said,
June 23, 2007 at 11:03 pm
yeah, it is true that ATM may give you a fake bill. Such kind of things happened in Wuhan before, and the newspaper has reported such things.
Wow~ really unbelievable! how could this happen?
lily
said,
June 24, 2007 at 9:24 am
”金无足赤,人无完人”,可能他们也没注意到.不过他们肯定不是故意的.我比你幸运,我在取款机上还没取过假钱.现在唯一能做的就是希望银行工作人员能够对他们的工作更负责,同时你也要学会怎样辨别人民币的真伪.
jefry
said,
June 24, 2007 at 11:01 am
Have you ever considered that you were possibly being scammed by the restaurant it self? I read somewhere that some store/rest purposely changed your genuine money to fake money and come back to you saying that your money is fake!! that’s one way for them to “laundering” their counterfeit money… ..
Benjamin Ross
said,
June 24, 2007 at 11:37 am
I probably should have mentioned in the post that the reason I was eating in the restaurant was because I was interviewing the operations manager for an upcoming post I am writing on foreign food in Fuzhou. It was 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and I was the only customer in the restaurant. It would seem logical that if the waitress was planning on switching the fake money, she could have found a much more appropriate, and less risky time. I guess it is still possible the restaurant could have done it, but I still have my money (no pun intended) on the bank.
Mylea Mei
said,
June 24, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I haven’t had such experience yet. I can not believe it happened in Chinese ATM system.
Jet So
said,
June 26, 2007 at 7:11 am
Can’t say much about ATMs forking over counterfeit notes at most Chinese banks but I can definitely say that the bank tellers at BoC can pull a fast one (e.g. removing a hundred or two from your original deposit) if you’re not alert enough … and that happened at one of their flagship branches at Oriental Plaza in BJ!
Shanghai Roundeye
said,
June 26, 2007 at 3:08 pm
The waitress or not the waitress? I know you want to believe the in the nobility of the blue collar worker after working in a blue collar job recently, but the fact is that you are in China and people here will do anything for a quick buck. Taxi drivers and bar/restaurant staff are the worst for this type of behaviour. I work as a bar manager in Shanghai and have had to fire several staff for scamming customers, the bar, or both at the same time. Switching real and fake money is just one of many ways to make some extra cash.
I don’t have the time for a proper tirade, but what it comes down to is this. Whether it was the waitress or a bank employee, you are out 100rmb and someone else has it.
Kanji
said,
June 27, 2007 at 12:49 am
When the server brought it back and asked you for another bill, it would be amusing if you had said “离开不负责”
cat
said,
June 28, 2007 at 10:00 am
There’s a person inside the ATM machine, looking through a little peep-hole and waiting for foreigners to come along so he can feed the fake bills through the slot.
dim_summary
said,
June 28, 2007 at 12:18 pm
I don’t know about Bank of China, but on our college campus, the local credit union’s ATM (Guangdong Rural) has a rep for passing out fakes. Of course, this is the bank that the school uses for our payroll accounts. Awesome.
Edward
said,
June 28, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Hey,there.好久不见！
对于你的遭遇深表同情，精神上支持你一下。
Plus:you may not remeber me,I am a student in the International College of Chinese Studies.YOU met me in the Chinese Corner.
顺便说一下，看到你在“21st Century”报纸上出现，吓了我一跳。刚开始还以为是长得很像的人，后来才发现是你。无语～～～～
China Law Blog
said,
June 29, 2007 at 9:04 am
I’m betting on it having been the waitress. Waitresses generally have much better Lowai-dar than ATMS.
Gustaf Hansen
said,
June 29, 2007 at 10:21 am
I would say it could have been both. I have also had a 100 bill popping out of an ATM that is fake. And no one else had any chance of doing any switching on that bill. It looked very real though and there was no problem spending it.
Jamieson
said,
June 30, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Yeah mate, I went to an ICBC ATM here in Suzhou, Ren Min Lu, near the Peoples #1 Department store – pulled out 200 kuai, folded them and put them in my wallet. Went to buy smokes in a local KEDI – got blacklighted, blanked and the lady was very kind. She handed back the dodgy ton and asked for another.
I whipped out the other one and it was OK. Legit. Got the smokes and change. I went down the lane and bought some more smokes with the dodgy ton. Felt somewhat BAD, but….. got even more legit change.
Sory folks, finger me with dodgy notes, I’ll finger back. From an ATM ? Give ICBC a miss. Sneaky, shameless Laowai – but uhhhh – I worked damn hard to get this salary and I expect that a bank would have people check the notes before loading them into the cassette in the ATM.
Call the cops ? Yeah on the mobile. Let us discuss the idea of insgnificance.
In 4 + years I have never called the cops. It is an exhaustive experience ( according to my friends).
If there’s a drama, I play ignorant foreigner, and ask wife to handle any B.S.
Just keep your nose clean, don’t break any rules- you’ll be sweet.
Jamieson.
Kevin S.
said,
July 1, 2007 at 7:04 pm
My boss once got a genuine but slightly defaced USD100 bill from BoC. He tried to give it to me once as part of my salary and I told him there was no way I was taking that bill from him. No problem. He told me he’d go to the bank and change it for a fresher one for me. I saw him a week later and asked him if he had gone back to the bank with the bill to exchange it. He said that the bank wouldn’t take it back. Hahahahaha. Anyway, he gave me another fresh bill and eventually pawned off the defaced one on someone going to the States.
Steve
said,
July 3, 2007 at 12:17 am
How can you tell it is counterfit? I am coming to China for the first time next week and wonder how I will tell if a bill is problematic. Such a basic question for you but one that eludes me.
Benjamin Ross
said,
July 3, 2007 at 1:45 am
Steve-
I am not very good myself at catching fake money, but usually you can tell just by feeling it, especially on the bad fakes. There are hundreds of different little tricks, and it seems like everybody has their own foolproof way to tell. Best thing to do is ask a Chinese shop keeper to show you a few of them.
James
said,
July 7, 2007 at 12:50 am
The central Government needs to do their job to stop the counterfeit money.
Some policemen in FuZhou are not trustworthy….
Most of the counterfeit money come from Taiwan. Lots of fisherman from Taiwan transport the counterfeit RMB to China and sell it pennies on the dollar. Local authorithy is not doing their job….
LT
said,
July 15, 2007 at 11:15 am
It’s true, you’re getting fakes from the ATM. Other “Chinese” friends have told me this has happened to them too. The Chinese you asked were either being defensive or also just can’t believe it.
The other point also is that the switch may also have been done by the waitress. I had a waitress once point out to me how to give a 100 bill at a restaurant. She said, you say the last few digits of the serial number to the waitress and she confirms it, then takes it away. Making a switch hard.
You might think this much too paranoid, or bothersome, but it can be done very quickly in a few-second exchange and they actually are quite accustomed to it. I still don’t though, the trusting fool that I am. I check every 50 note though, and sometimes hand it back just for the heck of it!!
LT
said,
July 15, 2007 at 11:30 am
Hi Lilly,
你好傻。银行和银行工作人员最坏。你知道他们肯定查一般的客人的100块，不过他们也受了他们的‘朋友’的钱。是从这里他们就送给一般般的客人那种假钱。
The source of the counterfeit money is from interbank and large cash exchanges accepted by the banks. This is in contrast to the meticulous checking by the tellers when receiving money from normal customers.
There is no “running of the bills” thru the bill checker before placing the cash in the ATMs. Thus the occasional corruption in banks gets transferred to poor unprotected individuals.
nicklas bergner
said,
October 26, 2007 at 10:15 pm
BEN!
I belive you it has happend to me and my friends , it is always bank of china . i been living in china for 6 years and this happend 3 times to me. i know it is the atm since i always remember the 3 last numbers in the serial number on the bill. I have talked to bank of china but ofcourse they say i got the money from somewhere else . (what else would they say…) But an other problem i had 4 times is when i try to withdrawal money from my oversea visa card the money got sent over to the ATM and then i can hear the ATM counting the money and suddenly there is an message comming up transaction faild, so i feel strange . i take the customer advice and phone my bank up in Sweden they fax over an statement proving that the money that i tryed to withdrawal has been payed out by the bank of china ATM . so with those two papers i go to the bank talking to the staff and they say that it is not the bank of china problem , the problem must be in the Swedish bank ..And after talking to the bank in sweden i go back to the bank of china trying get my money back , they say that if there been an misstake the money will be sent back to my account in 3 working days . but no money came . this happend 3 times and every singel time i lost my money . Today the same problem happend again. this time 2500rmb . the bank was closed so i could not deal with it today .I guess that the problem is when i use an oversea card and try to withdrawal money . the monitor say enter amount so i type in the amount then the ATM dials up my bank an the money is sent to that ATM , after that the ATM computer counts the money ,the ATM computer discover that there is not enugh money in the ATM and the transaction is rejected .But the ATM does not know how to send back the money to my oversea acccount .So the money got stock in the ATM. Again everytime i got told to wait 3 days and the money will be returned, but it does not happend !
If anyone had this problem please let me know !
chinadragontrade@yahoo.com
cheers Nicklas Bergner /Guang zhou China
shane
said,
August 16, 2008 at 9:54 am
I know quite a few people who got fake bills out of atms in china in 2007.
A lot of local got fake bills and the bank wouldn’t do anything about it.
It was especially frequent on bank of china atms
The ton of fake bills stopped after a bunch of televised investigations resulting in the busting of a large scale counterfeiting operation.
My opinion is that real chinese money is too easy to counterfeit, even real money has a cheapish feel to it
ben
said,
December 17, 2009 at 10:59 pm
10 days ago i withdrew 2000rmb from a bank of communications atm and 2 of the 20 100rmb bills i got were fake.
i am trying to get reimbursed. haven’t succeeded yet.
the atm is on linyedaxuebei lu, haidian district beijing. it is in the university area of beijing, just north of beijing forestry university.
serial number on both fakes is TE61925810.
anyone else get these?
x0123×0123@gmail.com
Anonymous
said,
October 8, 2010 at 10:13 pm
TE61925810 I got one of these too, because this paper is reject by auto saving machine. i JUST GOOGLE the number on the internet to check wether i got a fack 100rmb or not, then I find this page..
Alan
said,
June 13, 2011 at 4:06 pm
Who ever says that you cannot get fake money from ATM in Xi’an, China is wrong. I got 1,200 from the ATM and I used all of it except 500 yuan. These five 100 yuan bills are fake. It is true that an ATM can give you fake money. I am in Beijing right now and I will be taking this problem up with the U.S. embassy. That is a lot of money that I got taken from me and I will get my money back in some way. Always check your money when you get it.