Check your cash! $25,000 in counterfeit money found in Cross Plains

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MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) - How often do you check to see if the cash in your wallet is actually real?

You might want to check again after more than $25,000 in counterfeit money is found in Cross Plains, near Madison.

Many of us don’t use cash that much anymore, but unless you check to make sure the bills you do have are real, that money could disappear with nothing to show for it.

When you ask people about receiving counterfeit bills… most have the same answer.

“I’ve never come across any counterfeit money before,” said one Milwaukee resident we stopped on the street.

“I actually have not, not as far as I know,” laughed Joel Flunker of Milwaukee.

But how often do people check?

“I’d say probably never check,” said Flunker.

Maybe we all should, fake bills are more common than you think, and it’s not just criminals making fake cash.

Fake money is just a click away on websites like Amazon Ebay.  There are even sites that claim their money is impossible to tell apart from real money.

Some are sites that say their money is meant for movie props or gag gifts.

"People need more spending money so they are going to get it anyway they can," said Capt. Todd Enzbrenner of the Sand Springs Police Department.

If you receive a fake bill and don’t notice, you’re out that money.

“I would be cautious because you are the ones that's going to lose,” said Capt. Enzbrenner, “if you're a garage sale you're gonna lose, if you're an individual person you're gonna lose."

So how can you tell?

Most bills have a water mark, and if you hold it up to the light it has a security strip.

Sometimes the coloring is different, and look at the writing.  If it was a prop bill made for a movie it will say something obvious like “not real money”.

There are other ways to spot a fake if you go to the Federal Reserve website listed here.

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