A woman in Ningbo, China, is claiming that she received a counterfeit bill among the cash she withdrew from a Chinese bank’s ATM.

After withdrawing 500 Yuan (around 80 US dollars) from the machine, Ms. Oh visited a pharmacy where she attempted to pay for a handful of items with one of the five 100 Yuan notes.

Although she had checked that the amount was there in full when it came out of the machine, Oh had not noticed the fake bill amongst the four other genuine 100 Yuan notes, and handed it over at the pharmacy without thinking anything of it.

The store clerk, however, spotted the note immediately and pointed it out to Ms. Oh. In order to confirm his suspicion, he tested the note in a machine designed to detect counterfeit bills. Sure enough, the warning alarm sounded.

In the hope of exchanging the fake banknote for the genuine article (after all, she was down $15!), Ms. Oh enlisted the help of local police, who contacted the bank and explained the situation.

The bank, however, argued that as Ms. Oh had left the machine and visited other locations since withdrawing cash, they had no way of ascertaining whether the note came from one of their machines as she maintained, and refused to carry out the exchange.

“Although there is always the possibility of fake notes entering into the system, the chances are extremely low,” maintained a bank official. “We use a number of detection methods in order to weed out any fake banknotes, but, as with technology of its kind, over time it becomes less efficient and is susceptible to break-down.”

While it’s possible for illegitimate banknotes to find their way into circulation in almost any country, and this is not a problem that China alone faces, Japanese netizens were understandably shocked to hear Ms. Oh’s story, and plenty to say on the matter.

“You can’t trust those pilfering machines! One time I withdrew 200 10,000-yen notes, took them to another ATM to pay in, and found out that I only had 199. I don’t know which of those sneaky so-and-sos kept it, but this kind of thing happens…” claimed one distrustful individual, perhaps ignoring the banknote blowing away behind him.

“If they’d agree to exchange the fake for a genuine note, we’d see an sudden influx of people lining up to trade in fake notes for real cash, LOL” chuckled another.

“I wonder if you can buy one of those portable detection machines in shops…”

“Why not just feed the fake on back into the ATM and see whether it realises? Job done,” chirped another sensible netizen.

Lesson learned? Check your cash every time you withdraw it, and if you discover a fake, cling to the machine for dear life and shout “shenanigans!!!” until a member of staff arrives on the scene…

Source: 2ch Kopipe Blog