Counterfeit Cash: Idaho Falls retiree scammed out of hundreds in marketplace sale

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI)– As cash continues to circulate alongside digital payments, counterfeit bills are still slipping into everyday transactions. Unfortunately, the "funny money" often goes unnoticed until it’s too late, which one Idaho Falls retiree says cost him hundreds of dollars in a Facebook Marketplace sale.

Judd Ritter is retired and relies on Social Security checks to get by. He sells items on Facebook Marketplace for extra money. When he sold a cell phone for $415, every bill he received from the buyer was fake.

"He seemed like a nice young man. But he really wasn't. That's really too bad. But he had used counterfeit money on me and took the phone. And so I'm out of the phone, and I took the money," Ritter said.

The incident was beyond heartbreaking for Ritter.

"You know, being retired, anytime you lose any kind of money, it hurts somewhere. I was going to use that money to do some bill paying and stuff, so now I don't have it, we'll just make do with what we have," Ritter said.  

Sargent Bryan Lovell from the Bonneville County Sheriff's Office says he's seen instances of counterfeit exchanges countless times and the best way to avoid these situations is to be aware and alert, starting with before the exchange.

"I think in terms of safety, if you need to go to the courthouse parking lot or a public area or the Ammon field office, or the police station, those are things that take away any risk that you might have," Lovell said.

According to the U.S. Secret Service, modern fake bills are becoming more sophisticated, thanks to advances in printing technology. While large-scale counterfeiting operations are less common than they once were, smaller, localized cases continue to pop up across the country.

Here's what you need to know to detect counterfeit money:

• Texture: You should be able to feel the texture of the ink on the bill.
• Compare the bill with another of the same year
• Look carefully at the printing quality
• Look for colored fibers in the paper: All U.S. bills have tiny red and blue fibers embedded in the paper
• Examine the serial numbers: Fake bills may have serial numbers that are not evenly spaced or that are not perfectly aligned in a row.