BEIJING (Reuters) – A flood of counterfeit Chinese banknotes that has alarmed consumers stocking up on gifts ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, was still stinging shoppers on Thursday despite government pledges of a crackdown.
China's central bank warned consumers last week to be wary of counterfeits, after local media said high-quality fake banknotes had been found in 14 provinces across the country.
"I was so unfortunate. How could I get a fake note? It looked real in my eyes," a reporter surnamed Zhao told Reuters, after her 50-yuan (five pound) note was refused by cash-detecting machines in Beijing.
Zhao said several of her friends had also been stung by fake 50-yuan bills, amid media reports fake notes were being openly sold in southern China and had appeared in Hong Kong and Macau.
The sale of these notes appeared to be rife in Guangdong, with several online sellers in the southern province bordering Hong Kong boasting their notes could "cheat detectors," the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post said.
One website ( http://szhy2008.cn) calling itself a "direct distributor" of Taiwan-made fake currency, but carrying a phone number with an area code for China's southern city of Shenzhen, was selling batches of notes for 15 yuan per 100 yuan bill.
The spread of fake banknotes has raised warning bells in Taiwan, after Chinese media reports suggested they had originated from the self-ruled island.
In recent years, an issue of newly minted notes has decreased the incidence of fake bills in China which was once awash with counterfeit notes. But most shopkeepers keep cash-detectors, and the ritual of stroking a note and holding it up to the light remains common among local consumers.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Beijing, James Pomfret in Hong Kong and Ralph Jennings in Taipei; Editing by Valerie Lee)
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