By Jake Dietsch
Counting the cost: Ilario Patane, owner of Subway in Kwinana, sorts through $50 notes after a spate of receiving ounterfeit bills.
Shop owners in the southern suburbs are reporting an influx of fake $50 notes.
They say it is becoming harder to identify counterfeit notes, as some fake bills are almost identical to real ones.
Businessman Alvaro Nascimento, who owns a Domino’s store in Kwinana, says the number of counterfeit notes his outlet has received has risen sharply in the past few months.
“We lost in excess of $500 in a space of eight weeks,” Mr Nascimento says.
Owner of a nearby Subway store, Ilario Patane, has also told police that his store has received counterfeit notes.
“Some [fake $50s] are really good quality… the counterfeiters are getting better at what they do,” Mr Patane says.
“The older [fake] notes always had something missing on them, but with these ones the detail is much more professionally done.”
The businessmen say the fake notes are having a significant impact on their profits.
“When you add it up it’s a big chunk out of your bottom line,” Mr Patane says.
He says other Subway stores have received fake notes
WA Police have referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
A spokesperson for the AFP told The Bounce they are working with the Reserve Bank of Australia to combat organised criminals who are producing fake money.
Meanwhile, Mr Patane says one way of testing if a note is real is by scrunching it up.
“If you scrunch [a real $50 note] it should spring back because they’re made out of plastic, whereas the counterfeit ones are made out of paper so if you scrunch it up it stays scrunched up,” he says.
Mr Nascimento uses a torch to shine an ultraviolet light on the notes he suspects of being counterfeit.
“If the numbers don’t glow, then you know it’s a fake,’’ he says