India's new currency problem: Fake Rs 2,000 bills at SBI ATM
It’s not that the Indian government isn’t trying to fill the void it created last November when it invalidated much of the cash in the country. But, every week it seems to run into a new problem.
The latest challenge is fighting the fake bills. Rohit Kumar, a New Delhi resident has filed a complaint with the police after a cash booth (ATM) dispensed four fake Rs 2,000 ($30) bills earlier this month. The incident took place in Sangam Vihar, New Delhi, at a government-run State Bank of India ATM.
A Senior police officer told Hindustan Times they are talking with the bank authority to find the culprit. In the meantime, the officer said they were able to verify Kumar’s claims.
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"We sent a sub-inspector to verify the allegations. He withdrew one Rs 2,000 note and that also turned out to be fake,” the officer said. The bills, Kumar added, had "Children Bank of India" label, similar to the those bills you may have gotten with candy boxes as a kid.
Fake cash is nothing new in India. India's historic decision last month to demonetize 86 percent of all cash in the country even aimed at tackling the fake cash problem among other things.
At the time, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi had claimed that the new Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,00 bills use better security measures to make it more difficult than ever for fraudsters to replicate them. In the months since, even the Reserve Bank of India has reported printing issues in some bills, and now we have fake bills finding their way into an ATM.
