Syracuse (WSYR-TV) -- It’s probably not shocking to hear someone got counterfeit cash from a convenience or department store, but what about a bank? A Central New York woman called us after she was told the cash she got from her bank might be fake.
Caitlin Connelly was shocked when she went to deposit $1,000 in cash that she got from Bank of America into her landlord's HSBC account. HSBC told her the money looked to be counterfeit. An oily substance on the cash threw off the machine used for deposits. The Otselic Valley school teacher told us the last place she thought funny money could come from was a bank.
Needless to say, Connelly’s money was tied up for a week and caused a lot of inconvenience.
NewsChannel 9 called the Secret Service after learning of Connelly’s story and what we learned may surprise you.
“Every financial institution has money counters that have a degree of counterfeit detection, and theirs would not allow bills to be counted, and kept kicking them out,” said Secret Service Resident in Charge Tim Kirk.
Kirk says it’s very rare for one bank to question another bank’s money, and extremely rare for a bank to distribute counterfeit currency.
Bank of America did credit Connelly’s account during her week-long wait. Kirk tested the money and determined it was real. Though, had it been counterfeit, Connelly may have been been out of luck.
“You don't have much recourse other than to give up who you received it from, you're at a loss,” Kirk said.
“I don’t have a thousand dollars, it would have been devastating,” Connelly said.
That’s why Kirk says you need to take those extra few minutes to learn how to detect fake bills.
“I learned to be proactive, call the news, call the police and double check your cash. It's very important,” Connelly continued.
Agent Kirk says although he would have rather gotten a call from the banks first, before NewsChannel 9, but he says the banks did nothing wrong.
A Bank of America spokesperson said they train their tellers to use counterfeit detection equipment. They do not track each individual bill and serial number. We never heard back from HSBC.
CLICK HERE to learn more about how to spot fake cash. Agent Kirk shows you step-by-step how to detect a fake bill.
