Counterfeit Cash at Kagoshima Shrine

[Mulboyne]

The Asahi reports (Japanese) that fake "old" 10,000 notes have turned up at a Kagoshima shrine. The counterfeiter must have been drunk. The reverse-side of the note is upside-down.
FG Thread: FG Busted in Kyoto with Funny Money
FG Thread: Counterfeit 1,000-yen bills that cost more than 1000yen?
FG Thread: Kid fakes banknotes really badly

[gomichild]

They were sneaky though - they handed over the notes folded up - most of the stall holders didn't check when they unfolded them.

[Mulboyne]

Fake notes are turning up at shrines all over the country. 3 Kyoto shrines have identified 16 so far according to the Asahi while Miyagi prefecture have found 60.

Story on MDN:
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20050103p2a00m0dm007000c.html
Scores of vendors at temples and religious sites across the country have been burned by revelers passing out counterfeit cash over the New Year period, the Mainichi has learned. Bogus bills, nearly all of them modeled on the old 10,000 yen notes superseded in November last year, were passed on in Miyagi, Iwate, Kyoto, Hyogo, Osaka and Kagoshima prefectures. The funny money was used to buy religious trinkets and amulets traditionally sold by vendors to those making a New Year's visit.
In Miyagi Prefecture, 45 counterfeit notes were found in Sendai and another 43 picked up in Iwanuma. Iwate Prefecture saw at least six bogus bills unearthed. These were notable for all having the same registration number, lacked clarity and a relief mark. They appeared to have been made using a color copier. By the end of Saturday Kyoto's myriad shrines and temples had turned up at least 14 fake notes, while 20 turned up in neighboring Osaka and a further 19 in nearby Kobe. In Kagoshima, more than one dozen vendors at shrines and temples reported having been given "scores" of funny money.

[dimwit]

The funny money was used to buy religious trinkets and amulets traditionally sold by vendors to those making a New Year's visit.

So they were using worthless money to buy worthless trinkets. Con men getting conned.

[cstaylor]

The funny money was used to buy religious trinkets and amulets traditionally sold by vendors to those making a New Year's visit.

So they were using worthless money to buy worthless trinkets. Con men getting conned.

Well, if you're talking about the typical trinket, running ~1000JPY, you've just walked away with ~9000JPY in clean money.

[FG Lurker]

So they were using worthless money to buy worthless trinkets. Con men getting conned.

So if someone thinks that whatever business you are in is worthless, it is okay for them to ruthlessly rip you (or your company) off to the point of pushing you towards financial ruin?

Oh, it's somehow different because it's happening to *YOU*?

I see.

[NeoNecroNomiCron]

The funny money was used to buy religious trinkets and amulets traditionally sold by vendors to those making a New Year's visit.

So they were using worthless money to buy worthless trinkets. Con men getting conned.

Well, if you're talking about the typical tricket, running ~1000JPY, you've just walked away with ~9000JPY in clean money.

Really 1000 better visit a shrine or 2. Even thoes crapy arrows fetch between 3000 and 5000, plus all that takoyaki will take the best of 10000 bill any day.

[cstaylor]

Really 1000 better visit a shrine or 2. Even thoes crapy arrows fetch between 3000 and 5000, plus all that takoyaki will take the best of 10000 bill any day.

Better head back to those shrines and buy yourself an omikuji for a few hundred yen.

Not everything there costs > 1000JPY.

[Mulboyne]

MDN: English teacher busted for using black and white copy of 1,000-yen note
ODATE, Akita -- A high school teacher has been arrested for using a black and white copy of a 1,000-yen note to pay a fare to a driver, police said Saturday. Kazuya Ito, 31, an English teacher at Akita Prefectural Kosaka High School, is accused of using counterfeit currency. His boss was apologetic about the incident. "It's not the kind of thing that a schoolteacher is allowed to do for fun, as counterfeit money incidents are serious problems. We apologize to our students and to their parents."
Ito handed a black and white copy of a new 1,000-yen bill to a driver in Odate at around 10:30 p.m. on Friday, police said. The driver was initially unaware it was fake because it was dark inside the vehicle. However, he later noticed that it was black and white with the other side being blank, and alerted police. Ito had asked a transportation company to dispatch a man to drive his car after he got drunk with his colleagues.
The teacher used a copy machine to make a copy of the new 1,000-yen bill, and affixed a photo of a colleague to the watermark position, investigators said. Ito teaches English at Kosaka High School and is the homeroom teacher of a third-year class.

[devicenull]

This is incredibly funny to me for personal reasons. The day after I arrived from China, one of the first questions I asked the guy in charge of the program was about counterfeit money. He claimed that it was rare and not to worry. I pressed the issue and asked what would happen if I got ahold of one, what if I spent it unknowingly and was caught, etc. In china, this is a common problem, but the worst you will be out if you are taken is like $13. Here, it could be $100. So, naturally, I was worried.

This resulted in 3 conferences with him and 5 more with an assitant of his about this. He was worried that I was trying to make fake bills and actually filed a few reports about it. Apparently, the notion that I wanted to know about the issue was too much for him to comprehend.