ATM in BDO BF found to have dispensed a fake P500 bill; Tips on how to determine fake P500 bills here

From one ATM news to another — this time from the actual person who experienced it so we know its true.

A contact in Facebook posted earlier this morning that she withdrew money from BDO along President’s Ave. (beside Caltex — corner of Elizalde St.).

Since the machine only dispensed P500 bills and she didn’t want her wallet too bulky, the bank client went inside the branch to have them changed to P1,000 bills.

“Lo and behold, one of the P500 bills was fake!” she said in her Facebook post.

The bank then retrieved the CCTV footage to trace her transaction and they were able to verify that there was no foul play involved in the withdrawal process of the villager.

The bank then apologized and replaced the fake P500 bill.

“I told the manager of the branch that having fake money at your ATM is very alarming and they should report this to head office and look into the incident immediately,” expressed the victim.

The bank manager said that this was the first time this has happened to them.

Up until the time she left, the ATM was still “Online” and she didn’t know already what happened after she left.

Be careful, everyone and here are some tips from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group on how to see if a P500 is fake:

“It’s so easy, all you have to do is to feel, look and tilt,” they said.

“A fake peso bill is made of shiny and smooth paper whereas an original peso bill uses rough and thick paper and the reflection of the pictures of the late former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. and the late former President Corazon Aquino on the right portion of the bill is apparent.”

“When you tilt the paper bill, the watermark figure of the national heroes could be seen. We can also see the security seal has notes of 500, which could not be seen on the fake bills,” they added.

Another aspect is the clear, sharp print of the genuine paper bill while the counterfeit looks faded.

Either from an ATM or from a person paying you, please be extra wary and observe the money meticulously just to be sure. P500 is P500.

It is also very alarming that a bank’s own ATM is giving out fake bills. We hope BDO and all the other banks make sure that they only have original and legit bills.

They owe it to us, their clients.