Reports of counterfeit currency have surfaced.
Harry’s Continental Kitchens, 525 St. Judes Drive, Longboat Key, got shortchanged April 7 by a fake $50 bill.
Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key chambers of commerce have emailed members warnings about the recent circulation of counterfeit cash.
Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce president Deb Wing said she received a report from Poppo’s Taqueria owner Mike Coleman, who encountered two fake $20 bills.
According to Coleman, owner of the Anna Maria Poppo’s and three area Poppo’s restaurants, the counterfeit was passed at his Lockwood Ridge location.
Harry’s manager Hal Christiansen said the $50 counterfeit bill was received by a server who didn’t check the bill with the restaurant’s counterfeit marker. A day later, the restaurant’s bank identified it as fake.
No one remembered the suspect.
“We don’t see this all that often,” Christiansen said, adding the fraud can happen in the tourist environment when merchants “are not taking all the precautions.”
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office has received 19 counterfeiting reports — $20s, $50s and $100s — since Jan. 1, according to MCSO public information director Dave Bristow.
LBKPD Sgt. Robert Bourque said the counterfeit bill confiscated from Harry’s was pre-marked.
Various security features include holograms, raised portions, strips showing under a black light and the unique feel of the paper.
“The paper — that’s one thing they haven’t been able to get,” he added.
Tendering pre-marked counterfeit bills is a recent scam, Bourque said.
The marker is applied to indicate the counterfeit bill previously tested good, a ploy that causes merchants to improperly rely on the mark.
— Kathy Prucnell