Counterfeit Money; crazy story!

THIS HAPPENED RIGHT HERE IN UTAH COUNTY SO YOU MIGHT WANT TO SHARE THIS STORY WITH PEOPLE YOU KNOW WHO USE CRAIGSLIST!!!

So some good friends of mine sold some computer parts computer on craigslist. My friends husband met the buyer in a parking lot to exchange the goods for around $3000 cash. After handing over a portion to a business partner he got home and dutifully handed the cash over to his wife (; She immediately identified something wrong with feel and look of the the bills so they called the police and were asked to bring it to the FBI offices in Salt Lake where it was then confiscated.

Well by the time they called the police the business partner had already taken his portion of the cash to the bank to deposit it and the crazy thing is that it passed the pen test and the bank credited the deposit to his account informing him that the bureau would later destroy and replace it. I guess it is covered by some kind of insurance.

I inspected the money which at first does not look out of the ordinary but on closer inspection smelled very different than real money and was printed on a heavier, stiffer material and felt slightly waxy.

They (the FBI office) told my friend that the reason it passed the pen test was because of a chemical added as a kind of seal or protector to block the pen from making real contact with the paper. This is one of the reasons why the money smells very different than real money, it is almost a sweet smell.

The point of this story is to be very careful when accepting cash especially from purchases made off craigslist!! Keep in mind that using a money tester pen might not ensure that money is real! And if you do somehow still end up with fake money, spend it anyway (JK, please don't go to prison) But if you're taking a very big loss, it might be good to know that the bank is insured to replace this money and will open a case with the FBI once they have identified it as counterfeit.