Accused of trying to use a fake €50 note

Latchy

nipplenuts wrote: »

Ah, but a fake £20.00 note will not be accepted in the Euro zone anyhow. So what's the point?

Obiously not but I dont live in Euro zone ,sorry

Mr. Presentable

latchyco wrote: »

Obiously not but I dont live in Euro zone ,sorry
There are quite a few fake £20 notes with metal strips in circulation and having seen a few , are very hard to tell from the real thing .

So what is the point of this, then?

Latchy

nipplenuts wrote: »

So what is the point of this, then?

Well the thread is about fake 50 Euro notes .But does'nt the same logic /law apply to any notes , be they Euro , £ Dollar or whatever .?

mikemac

Sounds like a nice little earner for that staff member.
But it's too late to do anything now as if you go back and complain you look like someone with a grudge.

If it happens again, demand a manager and get them to call to the gardai.

Mr. Presentable

latchyco wrote: »

Well the thread is about fake 50 Euro notes .But does'nt the same logic /law apply to any notes , be they Euro , £ Dollar or whatever .?

No, the thread is about the OP's particular and specific experience.

Latchy

nipplenuts wrote: »

No, the thread is about the OP's particular and specific experience.

It is , and you I and a few other gave advice on what we would, or should, do in same situation .But you decided to question me about my knowledge of fake notes and how one should or should not handle situation , how Ironic .

siobhan.murphy

name and shame

darc

There's a very simple way of knowing if a note is fake or not. No pen / ultra violet needed.

Just lightly rub your finger on the top left of the note and you'll feel the braille marks - even if the note is solied.

Its the one thing the forgers havn't been able to / not been bothered to copy.

Once you know what you're looking for, you'll do it automatically & the customer won't even notice.

As for the OP, I'd guess the staff member simply got mixed up with the instructions. If the pen leaves a mark its false, it not its real.

spurious

darc wrote: »

As for the OP, I'd guess the staff member simply got mixed up with the instructions. If the pen leaves a mark its false, it not its real.

A much more likely scenario than the 'robbing foreigner' theory.

IsThatSo?

spurious wrote: »

A much more likely scenario than the 'robbing foreigner' theory.

Possibly, BUT every €50 note that went through her hands that day would have been forged, to her knowledge that is. Erm, personally I would question my knowledge if every €50 note presented to me was a "forgery".

I am glad OP posted this, IF it is a scam then its good to be forewarned

dudara

I don't believe that it is appropriate to name the shop in this thread. Although the actions of the shop assistant may cause suspicion, there is no evidence of any wrongdoing.

However, I would be interested to hear if anyone knows what to do in such a situation, i.e. if a shop attempts to confiscate a suspect banknote.

dudara

foggy_lad

spurious wrote: »

A much more likely scenario than the 'robbing foreigner' theory.

possibly more likely but when the actions of the shop assistant are taken and her reluctance to have the op call the guards makes her look guilty as sin.

Latchy

Shop assistant must give you a reciept if she confiscates the note. Then she call's the gaurds .But no way do you just give it to her and walk away . It's the gaurds who decide what action must be taken next .

bren2002

Yes, name the shop. It's not libellous if it's true.

Richard

Deleted User wrote: »

Report her to management without a doubt.

"Confiscate" it?

I wouldn't stand for it, that's for sure.

If you suspect that a note is fake, then legally you can't pass of back to the customer - you must confiscate it. Though in this case it seems that the shop worker was wrong in suspecting it to be fake.

foggy_lad

dudara wrote: »

I don't believe that it is appropriate to name the shop in this thread. Although the actions of the shop assistant may cause suspicion, there is no evidence of any wrongdoing.

However, I would be interested to hear if anyone knows what to do in such a situation, i.e. if a shop attempts to confiscate a suspect banknote.

dudara

afaik if you have already handed the note over as payment the shop has the right to retain it and in this situation it would be usual for the guards to be called.

darc

bren2002 wrote: »

Yes, name the shop. It's not libellous if it's true.

It is libellous as it was an employeee of the shop who may have made an error and unless you have proof that it was policy of the store, and proof that the store itself deliberately set out to deceive the customer then anything said in a negative way affecting the store owner or his/her business is libellous.

The good thing about the OP is that it warns people taht there is a possiblity of a probelm. But I would almost certainly think that it was an error by a new staff member in a store taht does not get a huge number of €50 notes - does anyone really think something like this would be able to get by ordinary everyday customers for more than a couple of hours without raising suspicions??

I'm going for error in this case.

mikemac

Best not to directly name and shame

Now tell us OP, do you know any good local shops in your area? One in particular?

SouthKerry

At least give us the name of the town?

Zab

darc wrote: »

I'm going for error in this case.

Did we read different OPs?

OP wrote:

I told her its not the marker hasnt changed colour and she said its a new one if it doesnt turn colour its fake. then she kindly offered to not tell the manager but would have to confiscate the note to prevent me using elsewhere

Here the employee implies that she knows the markers turn black when the note is fake, but says this is a "new" marker that blackens real notes. She offers not to tell the manager but still confiscate the note, so how is she going to dispose of this note now that she's not following proper channels? Using her pocket I would imagine.

OP wrote:

when i asked for the manager i was told they were not available at the minute and i could wait if i wanted if i wasnt in a hurry i would have

And now we can't even talk to the manager about any of this, the same one that was supposed to be on hand before.

If OP's statements are true, then I'd say the overwhelming likelihood is that this was an attempted robbery. I'm also pretty surprised that people don't think OP should go back and speak with the manager, even though it obviously would have been better to talk to the manager at the time. I don't understand how you'd look like somebody with a grudge rather than somebody rightfully annoyed at the attempted robbery, and it's pretty obvious that if the note was fake you wouldn't have gone back. There's the potential for the situation to turn a little ugly, but that would have been the case if the manager had been available to begin with anyway.

foggy_lad

after a few minutes arguing in which i told her to call the guards then she let me have my money back and go. I went into the shop next door which had the marker and a blue light and they verified it was real

she also gave the note back and told the op to go when the guards were mentioned and afaik made no offer to call the guards herself and more importantly was not making any arrangments to take the op's details for returning the note if it was ever checked out properly!

it is most likely a scam and it can be going on all the time as different customers would not necessarily be talking to each other especially in a large town or city area and €50 an hour is a nice bonus for any shop assistant!

i dont see ignorance(except for anyone who would not insist on the guards being called) or innocence here just greed

ztoical

foggy_lad wrote: »

she also gave the note back and told the op to go when the guards were mentioned and afaik made no offer to call the guards herself and more importantly was not making any arrangments to take the op's details for returning the note if it was ever checked out properly!

it is most likely a scam and it can be going on all the time as different customers would not necessarily be talking to each other especially in a large town or city area and €50 an hour is a nice bonus for any shop assistant!

i dont see ignorance(except for anyone who would not insist on the guards being called) or innocence here just greed

Have to agree. Any store I ever worked in the policy was the note couldn't be given back and you had to call either a manager or the guards to deal with it straight away. Never heard of floor staff dealing with fake notes by themselves, normally the staff member is quick to call a manager and let them get yelled or at the very least have another member of staff double check the note in case they have made a mistake. I've seen the worlds most lazy managers race to the floor when they hear the words fake note so claiming the manager was busy sounds like bull. Also The fact that they gave it back to the OP when the guards where mentioned makes me think scam.

A girl I use to work with tired something like that but rather then pocket customers money right away she'd wait till just before cashing up then swap real notes for fake ones and when the managers spotted the fakes she'd claim she didn't notice they were fake. Worked for alittle while, we all got special training on how to spot fake notes but she was stupid to keep doing it as they quickly noticed only her till ever had fakes in it.

daheff

from my time working in a number of shops around dublin we were told to confiscate the dud note and give the customer a receipt with you name, shop address date & time and the garda station that the dud note would be sent to. This means that if you were wrong or the customer wanted to follow up the case they could do so with the Guards...

rubadub

Richard wrote: »

If you suspect that a note is fake, then legally you can't pass of back to the customer - you must confiscate it. Though in this case it seems that the shop worker was wrong in suspecting it to be fake.

So, if what you say is true, in this case she acted illegally and gave it back while thinking it was a fake. Or she attempted robbery, in either case she could be arrested...

mumhaabu

I remember as a young 17 year old in my second day in New York City something very similar happened to me. I went to pay for clothes in a store with a $50 bill and was accosted of trying to pass a forgery. The staff member said he was confiscating it and would be reporting it to the NYPD or FBI who ever deals with it and would not be giving me back my bill.

These bills had come fresh out of the Bank of Ireland a few days before so I was having none of it and refused to leave. Anyway my cousin was with me and brought a cop into the store to calm things down, the guy accused me of trying to pass forged currency and I counter accused him of fraud and racism, (Big Black guy) anyway the manager came down and checked the note which it turned out was real just simply an older model without the security built in.

This was not yer mans first time doing it, it turned out, (previously warned) and the Manager fired him on the spot and the NYPD took him away for questioning. I was apoligised to by the Store and the NY Cops praised my due diligence as this was being done to alot of non-english speaking tourists by him and he had somehow mistaken us and our brougues. I got my sweater free in the store also but it was a rather low ebb in what was probably the greatest event in my teenage years during that long hot summer.

OP: I would have held tough and called the guards immediatley, this was an attempt to rob you. How many old age pensioners and gullible kids may be caught out by this. The fact that it is a foreigner involved is very relevent as this scam may be perputrated by more than one. You owe it to society to see justice done. Immediate deportation and lifetime ban from Ireland is the appropriate punishment in this case.