I’ve worked in retail. I understand the mind-numbing tedium that comes with spending eight hours behind a register, taking cash, handing back change, and reminding people to insert their chip card, no, the other way around, no, leave it in, yes, you have to enter your PIN number.
But I reckon that even I, a very bad retail employee who spent all my time thinking about Orlando Bloom instead of concentrating on what I was doing, would have noticed this particular note crossing the counter.
Not so the people working at the McDonalds, Choice Variety and IGA in the south-east Queensland town of Warwick, though! Someone has gone to each and every one of these businesses and successfully exchanged notes like the one above for goods and/or services.
Just so we’re all seeing the same thing: that note appears to be made out of paper, has dotted lines crossing one of its corners, doesn’t have a see-through window, and has blue Chinese characters written on it. Legal Australian $50 bills… don’t have any of those issues.
According to the Warwick Daily News, the small Queensland town of Goondiwindi had a similar problem earlier this year. Sergeant Graeme Frost told the media:
“The fake notes weren’t discovered until the businesses had deposited their takings to the bank. These notes are extremely well done and very difficult to spot and were only noticed by the banks.“
One can only assume that either the crims have significantly slacked off, or we’re dealing with a separate bunch of master counterfeiters.
Citizens of Warwick, a respectful reminder: this stuff isn’t legal tender either.
Source: Warwick Daily News.
Image: Reddit.
