Clovis Police are Currently Battling Counterfeit Money Ring

Police in Clovis, New Mexico are dealing with a new counterfeit money scam.

The scam is that real $5 bills are being “washed”, changed into $100 bills and being spent at local businesses.  The fake currency has the look and feel of real money, since it is using the paper of a real $5 bill.  Also, counterfeit marker pens are ineffective against the scam since the pens will show the money as real, but there are several signs that it $100 bills being spent are fake.

The first sign is that if the supposed $100 bill is held up to light, the watermark portrait will be of President Abraham Lincoln (who is on the $5 bill) rather than of Benjamin Franklin.  The second is the vertical security strip within the bill itself says $5, rather than $100.

Clovis Police are asking merchants to get detailed descriptions of the people, and their vehicles, of anyone trying to spend the fake money.  The Clovis Police Department can be contacted at (575) 763-7000.