FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, February 27, 2025 10:00 a.m.
(Ottawa) – The Ottawa Police Service is asking Ottawa residents to be on the lookout for counterfeit $100 bills after receiving reports of fake currency being used in several ongoing investigations.
Since December 2024, the Ottawa Police Fraud Unit has received multiple reports of counterfeit currency. These bills are often used without retailers noticing, only to be identified as counterfeit later.
Here are some ways to tell if your currency is counterfeit:
Check serial numbers when accepting cash. Each bill should have a unique serial number.
Check the window on the bill for tiny numbers matching the denomination.
Verify that the portrait in the window matches the main portrait.
Use a small, bright light to see tiny numbers in the maple leaf window.
Ensure the image in the window changes colour.
Feel the raised ink on the main portrait by running your finger over it.
Observe the bill to see if it is identified as “prop money” or “for film use only,” often times, this can be seen in the fine print.
If you have been a victim of fraud, please report it online with the Ottawa Police Service and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre or by phone at 1-888-495-8501 (toll-free).
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Through the Community Safety Data portal data.ottawapolice.ca, members of the public can view, download, and interact with data released by the Ottawa Police Service.
A genuine Toonie, left, and counterfeit 'camel toe' Toonie.J.P. MOCZULSKI/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
The RCMP’s recent discovery of thousands of counterfeit toonies has raised concerns about the integrity of Canada’s banking system, through which they circulated with apparent ease.
It also raises a question: Why would anyone counterfeit the lowly toonie? The seized fakes seem to contradict the prevailing wisdom about counterfeiting: Since high denomination notes involve about the same amount of labour and input costs as low-value coins, $50 and $100 bills are far more attractive targets for fakery than toonies.
The answer might well lie in China, where the RCMP allege the Camel Toe Toonies (named for their most conspicuous defect, a flaw in the polar bear’s paw) originated.
Daixiong He, 68, of Richmond Hill, Ont., was arrested last month and charged with uttering counterfeit money and possession of counterfeit money. (None of the allegations have been proved in court.) The RCMP said the charges stem from a nearly year-long investigation during which it identified and seized about 10,000 counterfeit toonies from the Canadian banking system. (The Canadian Bankers Association declined to answer questions.)
Reports of the fakes surfaced during the first half of 2020, when a merchant found 75 in a cash register. The merchant, who didn’t publicly identify himself, posted a message about the discovery in July, 2020, on a coin collector’s forum.
“Given that I’ve been finding them on and off since March, I’m assuming they’re already in circulation in major numbers in the [Greater Toronto Area],” he wrote. “There’s no way they’re going to profit off these toonies by spending them on $2 coffees.”
That news soon spread among collectors. Mike Marshall, a coin expert in Quinte West, Ont., who has given seminars on identifying counterfeits, said he bought five rolls of toonies in October, 2020, and identified 26 counterfeits. Each featured the distinctive flaw: the polar bear’s front right paw had a large split toe.
Brent Mackie, treasurer of the Waterloo Coin Society, learned about the Camel Toe Toonies through an online forum in March, 2021. He went to the bank and bought a box of toonies, and found two imposters. His curiosity piqued, he bought nearly 500 more boxes in visits to banks in Ontario over several months, a total of about $500,000 worth. (He started a website dedicated to the fakes.) He found about 2,500 counterfeits, nearly all of them the Camel Toe variant.
“Definitely, they’re not hard to find,” Mr. Mackie said. “You can go to a bank, get a bunch of rolls and you’re almost certainly going to find some, at least anywhere close to [Toronto].”
Michelle Richardson, a spokesperson for The Royal Canadian Mint, which produces Canada’s coinage, said the Mint detected the fakes last summer through its random sampling. (She declined to describe the process, and said the Mint does not have investigative powers.) Officials notified the RCMP, which assigned financial crime investigators from its transnational serious and organized crime section to the case.
She said it’s exceptionally rare to find fake toonies, but not unprecedented.
Many Camel Toe Toonies have faint impressions of the polar bear around the Queen’s portrait.J.P. MOCZULSKI/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
In September, 2006, police accompanied Revenue Quebec officials to execute a search warrant at a token manufacturing facility in Repentigny, Que., in a tax evasion case. They found equipment for making counterfeit coins, along with near-completed toonies and loonies. They called in the RCMP.
The Mounties said this operation (dubbed the Montreal Mint) was the most complex of its kind they’d encountered. Those fake toonies bore dates of 2004 and 2005; their outer ring metal was a darker grey than genuine currency, and the core could be removed because it lacked a mechanism to hold it in place.
While the comparative quality of counterfeits is in the eye of the beholder, the RCMP said in a statement that the Camel Toe Toonies were even better. Their weight, for instance, was close to that of the genuine article. And they came in multiple varieties: Mr. Mackie said their most common dates are 1996, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
RCMP said in an e-mailed response to questions that the counterfeits are sophisticated, as they were able to enter the financial system and were accepted and deposited at banks.
They nevertheless included notable defects, the most obvious being the polar bear’s crude right front paw. Typefaces differ in obvious ways from the genuine article: Real coins use sans serif fonts, whereas some Camel Toe versions feature serifs. Mr. Marshall said the maple leaf on the obverse side is slightly too high.
Mr. Mackie paid special attention to manufacturing defects. For instance, when the dies – the metallic stamps used to make a coin – strike each other, they leave damage called a die clash on subsequent fakes. (This could happen when an operator fails to place a coin blank between them.) Many Camel Toe Toonies have faint impressions of the polar bear around the Queen’s portrait, he said. Furthermore, flaws in earlier versions become more pronounced in later ones.
Mr. Mackie said this indicates the operation produced lots of fakes, and quality control was not a priority.
“They’re using these dies until they literally explode,” he said.
Coin expert Brent Mackie at his home in Kitchener, Ont., June 24.J.P. MOCZULSKI/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Therein lies one possible explanation for how counterfeiting toonies could be profitable: economies of scale. Says Mr. Mackie: “When you start making millions of them, you’re able to reuse all the dies and machinery, and spread that cost out over each individual piece. When you’re producing millions of them, it may only cost 50 cents a coin to produce.”
This is the first foreign-based counterfeiting ring of Canadian coins that the Mint is aware of. But the coins’ putative origin in China didn’t surprise collectors, who are accustomed to seeing Chinese-made replicas of rare collectible coins.
“They didn’t make them to be traded as the real thing,” Mr. Marshall said of the replica collectibles. “They honestly make them for people to fill holes in their collection that they could never afford.” But unscrupulous sellers often buy such coins and sell them online at inflated prices to unwary collectors, he added.
With the counterfeit toonies, he added: “The only thing that has changed is, now adventurous people are realizing that the Chinese will make anything you want. If you send them a picture, give them a diameter and a weight, they’ll make it.”
As part of his efforts to persuade e-commerce sites and authorities to prevent the sale of Chinese-made counterfeits, Mr. Marshall has ordered thousands of fakes from Chinese suppliers. Not one of those shipments failed to cross the border into Canada and reach his doorstep via the postal service, he said. (Canada Border Services Agency spokesperson Rebecca Purdysaid officers are trained to look for smuggling and other customs violations; between 2017 and 2021, its officers encountered a mixture of counterfeit bills and coins and carried out 25 enforcement actions.)
Mr. Marshall estimated that “millions” of Camel Toe Toonies are in circulation. Initially found in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, they’re now across the country.
What’s more, Mr. Mackie and Mr. Marshall say they’ve seen entire boxes of toonies straight from banks that contained not a single genuine coin. Mr. Marshall said police should have started investigating when they were first alerted about the counterfeits in 2020, and that attempts to get public officials and the media interested were fruitless.
“Because it was coins, nobody reacted,” Mr. Marshall said. “Everybody went, ‘Yeah, right, who’s gonna counterfeit a toonie?’ That’s exactly why you counterfeit a toonie: Because nobody looks.”
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David Neil of the Piggy Market in Westboro displays a fake $20 bill, left, which came to his store on the weekend. The bill on the right is a real one.(David Neil/Facebook)
The owner of a Westboro deli wants businesses and shoppers to keep an eye out for counterfeit money.
David Neil, of the Piggy Market on Winston Avenue, says someone used a fake $20 bill over the weekend, when the store was busy.
"There's actually quite a few tells on it if you're not in a rush," said Neil.
One key difference is the feel isn't quite right, he said.
"The size is different [and] it's got a slightly greener tint to it. Queen Elizabeth's head has a different look to it [and] the maple leaf is not centred in the hologram."
Neil reported the counterfeit bill to Ottawa police on Thursday.
Counterfeiters often try to circulate their imitations when businesses are busy and distracted, according to the Ottawa Police fraud unit.
So it's important to take some extra time to feel the bill and look at the security features, such as the raised ink and the holograms, police said.
A comparison between a genuine and fake $20 bill under a microscope. The genuine $20 on the left has crisper features. The counterfeit bill on the right is pixelated and blurry.(CBC)
While Neil is only out $20 he knows there are more phony bills in circulation because his local bank branch showed him one they received this week.
Counterfeit money use down
As for counterfeiting overall, the Bank of Canada says it has trended down significantly since the introduction of polymer notes a decade ago.
According to Nish Vairavanathan, an analyst with the Bank of Canada's currency section, counterfeiters aren't producing great fake money. Recognizing a couple of distinct features on the polymer bills should be enough to tell the two apart
The biggest year for fakes was 2004 when $13.5 million in phony money was reported. In 2018, the most recent year where figures are available, there was $1.9 million in fake cash passed around, said Vairavanathan.
The most popular fakes are $100 and $20 bills, he said.
The Bank of Canada has these tips for retailers dealing with suspicious cash during a transaction:
Politely refuse the note and explain that you suspect that it may be counterfeit.
Ask for another note (and check it too).
Advise the person to check the note with local police.
Be courteous. Remember that the person in possession of the bill could be an innocent victim.
Inform local police of a possible attempt to pass suspected counterfeit money.
In addition to Canadian currency being counterfeited, the Ottawa police fraud unit says fake U.S. bills have also been circulating in the area.
Published Wednesday, August 30, 2017 11:12AM EDT Last Updated Wednesday, August 30, 2017 1:38PM EDT
If your Canadian currency has Chinese writing on it, it’s fake.
That’s the message RCMP in Campbellton, N.B. had for people in the area on Wednesday, after receiving reports of fake $20 and $100 bills with Chinese writing on them.
Northeast District RCMP have released a photo of one of the counterfeit twenties, which shows pink Chinese writing printed quite clearly over the clear panel on the polymer bill. A black track is also visible at the corner of the bill. Not that you need to see that to tell.
“These bills are distinct in that they have Chinese writing on them,” police said.
“Residents and businesses are advised to carefully check bills during transactions and immediately report any suspicious bills to their local RCMP detachment.”
The Chinese lettering appears to indicate that the bills are training samples, and are not meant for circulation.
CTVNews.ca found more of the bills available for purchase on eBay, where they were listed as “training bills.” The listing shows the banknotes are available in $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 denominations.
Other bills bearing identical markings have prompted warnings in the United States and Australia.
The Bank of Canada has plenty of resources to help people spot a fake bill. But in this case, one probably doesn’t need to be an expert to pick out the not-so-tell-tale signs of a forgery.
Ottawa man allegedly caught bringing $130K in fake U.S. cash into Canada
THE CANADIAN PRESS
FIRST POSTED: | UPDATED:
MISSISSAUGA - The RCMP says a man has been arrested and charged after allegedly being found carrying more than US$130,000 in counterfeit $100 bills.
The Mounties say a man returning from Ghana was intercepted last Thursday by the Canada Border Services Agency at the Toronto Pearson International Airport.
Police say the officers discovered counterfeit U.S. notes concealed within the inner lining of three handbags and the RCMP was contacted.
A 36-year-old Ottawa man is charged with unlawful introduction of counterfeit money into Canada and unlawful custody of counterfeit money.
Counterfeiters perplexed by Canada's plastic money
RCMP seizures show even the best attempts to simulate new bills' security features are easy to spot
By Alison Crawford, CBC NewsPosted: Jan 13, 2016 5:16 PM ET Last Updated: Jan 13, 2016 8:09 PM ET
Canada's plastic money is stumping counterfeiters. The RCMP estimate the number of fake bills passed on to retailers in 2015 dropped by 74 per cent compared with the previous year.
That doesn't mean people have given up trying to copy Canada's banknotes — it's just that even their best attempts to make fake cash are falling well short.
Regina Police Const. Scott Wolfe hasn't seen much counterfeit currency since the Bank of Canada introduced polymer money four years ago, but he did have a case last fall."When we first touched the bill you could tell it wasn't the polymer feel. It was paper. We could see they had cut out the security window from a real $5 bill and pasted it to a $50 and $100 bill," said Wolfe.
Regina police Const. Scott Wolfe is a commercial crime investigator. He says he hasn't seen any good counterfeit polymer bills yet. (CBC)
The face in the hologram didn't match the face on the bill and the edges were uneven. Even so, the money was successfully passed on to retailers, perhaps in a dimly lit bar or sandwiched between two authentic notes.
Wolfe said people passing counterfeit bills often pay for an inexpensive item with a high-value bill in order to get lots of change in authentic currency.
National Anti-Counterfeiting Bureau
The bills in Wolfe's case, like all bills turned over to police across Canada, eventually end up at the RCMP's National Anti-Counterfeiting Bureau in Ottawa. CBC News was granted exclusive access to the facility that examines counterfeit money, credit cards and official documents such as passports and driver's licences.
"Generally we're seeing a poor to medium-quality counterfeit note," said Robert Moyes, examiner of counterfeit for the RCMP.
A specialist examines a $20 bill at the RCMP National Anti-Counterfeiting Bureau. (CBC)
About 10 years ago, when counterfeiting was at its height in Canada, Moyes said, his lab would receive up to 45,000 notes every month. In December, Moyes said, the lab received 1,500 bills and many were copies of older-series paper notes, which are easier to fake.
'Nothing is counterfeit-proof … Everything can be simulated.'–Robert Moyes, examiner of counterfeit for theRCMP
"It's more of a challenge to the counterfeiter to produce these [new banknotes] and the simulation of the security features has been very poor," said Moyes.
Most of the counterfeit polymer bills are printed on paper. Some used paper with a waxy or plastic coating. A few bills look passable from a distance, but up close are too shiny and slippery.
One $50 bill OK at first glance — but the other side is completely blank.
"You only need to pass it once and the cashier is not going to turn [the bill] over," said Moyes.
Glittery giftwrap and a roll of tape
Several $5 bills at the bureau feature strips of glittery wrapping paper taped to transparent plastic strips in a crude attempt to simulate security holograms. Moyes said others go a step further by buying holographic sheets from shops in China. Shipments of the holographic sheets have even been seized by the Canada Border Services Agency.
"There's your average counterfeiter, who is short of money and they may produce 10 or 20 notes. We have organized crime, we have the biker gangs. Those tend to be the large contributors to our office."
Two counterfeit $5 bills are displayed at the RCMP National Anti-Counterfeiting Bureau. The holographic strip on both bills has been tampered with. (CBC)
All of the bills received by the bureau are examined by specialists under microscopes and different sources of light.
When a technician puts a genuine $50 bill under a high-powered microscope, the image of an eyeball comes up on a large computer screen. It's easy to see several security features, including the fine detail of raised red ink from an engraved plate. Even though that feature can only be seen under a microscope, it's something you can feel under your fingertips or by running a fingernail across the bill.
"It's got life to it. There's a tactility," Moyes said, adding that just the "feel" of a bill is one of the best ways a regular person can detect a fake.
When the genuine $50 bill is replaced under the microscope with a fake, it appears muddy on the screen.
"This is the eyeball — you can see the lack of line work, resolution. And in some cases, if it's toner, it flakes right off," Moyes points out.
A genuine and fake $20 bill are compared under a microscope. The genuine $20 on the left has crisper features. The counterfeit bill on the right is pixelated and blurry. (CBC)
Other bills are examined under three different sources of light. In the case of one $100 bill, a copy of an older-series paper note, the counterfeiter has done a respectable job adding ultraviolet features. Some retailers use UV boxes to test bills. Moyes said this bill likely would have passed such a test, which is why the RCMP and Bank of Canada recommend looking for more than one of the security features on higher-value bills.
Nothing is counterfeit-proof
Passing paper bills is just going to get harder as they disappear from circulation. The Bank of Canada estimates 80 per cent of notes in circulation are polymer. The disappearance of Canada's paper notes will likely force fakers to try to improve their efforts at counterfeiting polymer.
Robert Moyes has been working at the RCMP National Anti-Counterfeiting Bureau for 31 years. He says anything can be counterfeited, but the new polymer bills are proving a difficult challenge. (CBC)
"They'll always be doing that. Nothing is counterfeit-proof," said Moyes. "Everything can be simulated."
According to Moyes, more sophisticated polymer counterfeits are surfacing in Australia, where polymer bills are produced, and Mexico, where they are processed. That's why the bureau is conducting its own research to keep ahead of trends. In one room, staff experiment with 3D printers to see how criminals could possibly use the machines.
"It takes a while for the counterfeiter to experiment. And we are seeing the experiments. The Bank of Canada is aware of that and the Bank of Canada is currently looking at the next series," he said.
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