Fake banknotes circulating: police
PHUKET: Counterfeit B1,000 and B100 notes are circulating in Thailand, police have warned.
Paritta Wangkiat
Tuesday 29 May 2012, 10:51AM
A spokesperson of the Thai Royal Police, Maj Gen Piya Utayo, told media that last Tuesday (May 22), police in the deep south city of Haad Yai were notified by staff of a local 7-Eleven store that the store had received a fake B1,000 note from a fried chicken vendor.
Questioned by police, the vendor, Kornan Buanak, 40, told police that he had received the note from one of his customers.
The fake note is similar to the real thing, but printed on thinner paper, Gen Piya said. The colour is also rather paler than the genuine article.
In the north of Thailand, police in Nan province reported that some rather amateur fake B100 notes had been detected in the province.
The fakes are slightly smaller than the real thing and when the notes get wet the ink fades or blurs.
Gen Piya said that people passing the counterfeit notes usually use them to buy goods in places where the light is not good, or in crowded shops where their victims are too rushed to notice.
In addition, they will often mix the fakes in with genuine notes.
