Ever wonder why, when you hand a store clerk a $50 or $100 dollar bill, they raise it to the ceiling light, and then determine if it is a valid bill or not? This is because, in each real U.S. large denominational bill there are two parallel magnetic strips which can be viewed in the light. Without them, and regardless of the high quality artwork, the bills are phony.

I give you this information so that you yourselves can check your own bills at anytime to ascertain whether they are counterfeit or not. The parallel strips can change positions on each individual bill but the same magnetic lines will nonetheless be present regardless of their varied placement on the inside of the bill.

In the course of handling hundreds of fraud and theft cases, I wished to hand along this helpful little tidbit for any consumer who may feel skeptical about a large bill in their possession. Use any bright light to quickly and easily ‘test’ the suspect bill.

For those of you out there that may wish to ‘try your hand’ in this type of endeavor, please keep in mind that the perpetrators normally have exceptional artistic skills, and working with such tiny tools and ‘canvasses’ means that there are few people who can successfully forge counterfeit currency with any degree of success.

In addition, although considered a ‘Non-Dangerous’ Offense under the Arizona Criminal Code, their repetitive nature [one felony charge per false currency unit] can create, under Arizona and Federal Law, a very lengthy prison sentence, as well as substantial restitution obligations.

Although, after 21 years of handling criminal defense cases, I have been fortunate enough to have many clients receive only probation, outright dismissals, or minimal jail time, I highly encourage citizens not to pursue this career choice, as these endeavors tend to be short lived, and the number of victims [those people or companies who have been defrauded], can cause a Prosecutor to really ‘make and example’ out of someone who is caught.

I hope to do a segment soon on credit card fraud that might perhaps provide some useful information out there for consumers and proprietors who are reading this blog. But for now, I will continue to try to post useful information on our website at http://www.palmisanoazlaw.com/. Again, as always, feel free to fill out one of our free legal online review forms for further information or any other legal matter that is of interest to you. At the Palmisano Law Firm, we aim to please by giving consumers large firm quality at small firm prices.

Until next time, I remain humbly yours,
Joseph P. Palmisano, Esq.
Owner and Certified Specialist in Criminal Law.