Video: Bogus $100 Bills Circulating In Area

TUPELO, MISS. (WCBI) – The Lee County Sheriff’s Department is warning locals to be on the lookout for bogus $100 bills that have been circulating in the area.

Sheriff Jim Johnson said his investigators have taken 22 fake $100 bills off of the streets.

The fake bills can be purchased online and are often used as props in movies, or in training for bank employees.

He also points out the prop money has Chinese characters,  and all serial numbers are the same.

Recently, the sheriff says the fake bills were used to purchase a four wheeler that had been advertised on social media.

The sheriff says just possessing the fake bills can be a crime.

“The United States Secret Service is always called in to prosecute this, very successful at it, but if you do possess it you have to have some explanation of why you even got it and of course to pass it as US currency is a federal offense,” Sheriff Johnson said.

Sheriff Johnson says in the last four or five months,  roughly one thousand of the fake bills have been uses in transactions.  The sheriff encourages people to meet in public places, such as his department’s parking lot whenever buying or selling something through social media.