‘Funny’ money: a serious issue

High quality fake currency notes circulating in the market.

ISLAMABAD: There has been an increase in the instances of counterfeit currency making it to banks in Islamabad.

Zahra Raza, an entrepreneur who runs a boutique in Islamabad, said that she only learnt a customer had paid in fake notes when she went to deposit the cash at Standard Chartered.

“I was shocked and I was also told by bank staff that earlier in the day a few other people had also come in with similar complaints,” she said.

“I am helpless and I have to pay for the loss from my own pocket because I do not even think the customer herself knew that the currency she was carrying was counterfeit,” Raza added.

Officials at a Habib Bank branch narrated a similar incident where a person walked in with two fake Rs500 notes. “The man himself was clueless. The trend has always been there but we have recently had a few complaints over this,” said the bank receptionist. In each case the quality of the counterfeit currency was described to be of a high enough quality to fool a layperson.

The circulation of counterfeit currency in the market has been going on for years. Government officials say that while there is an oversight system in place the crime continues to exist.

State Bank of Pakistan Chief Spokesperson Syed Wasim said that they had not received complaints of fake currency recently. However, the issue of fake currency exists all over the world, he added.

He said all counterfeit currency complaints are forwarded to the Federal Investigation Agency. “One of the reasons why we changed the design of the currency is to help prevent counterfeiting.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th, 2011.