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Last year, Bainbridge Public Safety and the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office advised the public to be on the lookout for an influx of fraudulent checks. Now, the Sheriff’s office is warning of another financial scam in the area, this time an influx of counterfeit $50 and $100 bills. In a Facebook post from the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office, some of the bills are printed counterfeit bills, while some are actually motion picture prop money.

Investigator Vincent Edmond spoke with the Post-Searchlight about the fraudulent bills. According to Investigator Edmond, these bills have turned up not just in Decatur County, but surrounding counties in south Georgia as well as north Florida. “There are multiple offenders, we suspect some are locals, and some are not,” he said. If a clerk or cashier receives a bill they believe to be counterfeit, Edmond encouraged them to hold on to the bill and call 9-1-1.

Some indicators of a counterfeit bill people should look out for include unevenly cut edges, white space along the edges and corners, multiple bills with the same serial number (each bill has a unique number), and the bill’s color being off from the color of authentic bills. Another method is to mark the bill with a marker; on a genuine bill, the mark will always show up as a shade of yellow, and eventually disappear, while on a counterfeit bill, the mark will show as a more brown color, and will not disappear. Movie prop money is easy to identify, as these bills are marked with a stamp that reads, “For Motion Picture Use Only”.

According to Investigator Edmond, these bills have been turning up for about four weeks. The sheriff’s office is following up on leads, with security camera footage of several suspects having been captured. A blue Chevy Impala has been spotted and is believed to belong to one of the suspects. If anyone has any information on these bills or the suspects, they are encouraged to contact Investigator Edmond at 229-400-8020 or 229-248-3044. If you believe you have been given one of these counterfeit bills, you are encouraged to call 9-1-1.