SOUTH BEND — Police in northern Indiana are warning retailers to have workers manning cash registers hold $100 bills up to the light to make sure they're real.
South Bend police Capt. Phil Trent tells the South Bend Tribune that five counterfeit bills have been used at two different Wal-Mart stores in the city in the past few weeks. Trent says retailers using a pen to try to detect fake bills in a common test will be fooled.
That's because the counterfeiters are taking $5 bills, washing off the ink and printing fake $100 bills. Trent says the pens just detect if the paper is the correct kind. Trent says retailers holding the bills to the light will see Abraham Lincoln's face.
Real $100 bills bear a picture of Benjamin Franklin.
