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Fran Lu

A Chinese couple have been arrested for printing counterfeit banknotes, using them at local markets, and cheating more than 1,000 victims.
Police in Fuzhou, a city in eastern China’s Jiangxi province, said they received five reports from market vendors about receiving counterfeit banknotes in just one week in September 2023.
This was a marked increase, as they normally only receive such reports once or twice a month, the police said.
It was difficult to track down the suspects because of a lack of surveillance cameras in small, open-air markets and the hazy memories of victims.

However, investigators eventually tracked the banknote forgers down thanks to one surveillance camera that happened to document the whole racket.
According to footage from that camera, one of the suspects, a woman, first offered a real 100-yuan (US$14) banknote to the vendor, then she said she had small change and retrieved the genuine bill.
She then claimed she was mistaken about the small change, and gives a fake 100-yuan banknote to the vendor who fell for the scam as they only checked the note’s authenticity the first time.
Investigations revealed that a woman, surnamed Xu, and her husband, surnamed He, had been operating the con at farmers’ markets and had cheated more than 1,000 victims.
Officers seized 15 counterfeit 100-yuan banknotes at the couple’s home, and the equipment they used to forge the money, including a printer, paper cutters, and ink.

They also found a large number of banknotes the couple scammed out of the vendors, totalling more than 200,000 yuan (US$28,000).
The police said the couple were cunning because they did not keep too many fake banknotes, only printing the amount they would use on a given day.
They usually spent between 300 and 3,000 yuan a day while disguising their identity.
According to China’s Criminal Law, people who produce and use counterfeit money face three to 10 years in jail. They also face a fine of between 50,000 and 500,000 yuan (US$7,000 and US$70,000).
In extreme cases, the perpetrator could even be sentenced to death.

The police said investigations were ongoing.
The case sparked a heated discussion online, with many expressing sympathy for the victims.
“The scammers are evil people. The victims are mostly elderly people from the countryside who still use cash. They were scamming money out of one of society’s most disadvantaged groups,” one person said.
“It is shameless that they preyed on people who make hard-earned money. They should be punished severely,” another commented.


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Couple use ‘small change swap’ trick to scam market traders, police find genuine banknotes worth US$28,000, ink, paper cutters at their home


Couple use ‘small change swap’ trick to scam market traders, police find genuine banknotes worth US$28,000, ink, paper cutters at their home.


Crime in China

‘Shameless’ China couple arrested for printing fake banknotes, using them at local markets

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Couple use ‘small change swap’ trick to scam market traders, police find genuine banknotes worth US$28,000, ink, paper cutters at their home

Couple use ‘small change swap’ trick to scam market traders, police find genuine banknotes worth US$28,000, ink, paper cutters at their home