By Barry Leibowitz
CBS News
It’s all about the Benjamins in this case…which authorities say are fake in a clever counterfeiting scam in northern New Jersey.
The counterfeiters take real $5 bills, bleach them, and reprint them as 100’s with Benjamin Franklin’s face, according to CBS New York.
Another Benjamin – Wyckoff, N.J. police chief Benjamin Fox – says the bogus 100’s are well-disguised.
“The bills look very good and…because they’re on regular U.S. currency paper, they feel good, too. There’s that typical feel of a bill which will be different if it’s been cheaply printed on other phony paper,” the chief said.
Upon closer inspection, the bills have an Abraham Lincoln watermark and the security thread reads “U.S.A. FIVE.”
Two of the fake $100 bills have been passed at pharmacies in Wyckoff.