Secret Service takes over investigation of counterfeit bills

Havre Police Department investigators said they have turned over a regional counterfeit money investigation to the Secret Service.

The police dispatch log shows that an Independence Bank employee reported receiving a counterfeit $20 bill Monday at 3:13 p.m.

Lt. Aaron Wittmer said bank employees had already been on the lookout for counterfeit money after the bank received a counterfeit $50 bill a few weeks before. The fake 20 was passed through the teller window and the police have no suspects.

The 20 bill, Wittmer said, was “one of the better ones I’d seen.”

People who aren’t used to handling money can be duped by a well-made fake bill, he added.

The difference between real bills and fake ones, Wittmer said, is they feel different, the color “is off” on fake ones and there is no security strip.

The Secret Service investigates all currency crimes. One of the things they look at, Wittmer said, is the details in the imitations. Those differences, the way they are counterfeited, can indicate if the bills are produced by the same source.

The counterfeit bills that came through Independence Bank are different from the motion picture play money that was circulating in the region last month. Those movie $100 bills, which still fooled people despite the warning on the front and back, conspicuously indicated  “for motion picture use only.”