Re: Beware of Counterfeit $100 Bills
I get what you are saying, but assuming I am not the
counterfeiter, someone
illegally passed that bill to me.
So someone passed it to you -- so what?? What's your point?
If this is suggesting, as I suspect, that the current holder of the counterfeit bill, if not the person doing the counterfeiting, should be totally free of any penalty, since he/she is also a "victim" of the crime - that's not the way it is.
While I agree that this is the way it "should be" - it is not. It's the same as if you unknowingly bought stolen goods and are in possession of them -- you are out the purchase price and not entitled to keep the goods jut because you "didn't know", and no one is responsible for refunding your money (although, if it can be proved that they knowingly sold you stolen goods - not that easy to prove - they could be subject to criminal charges, and possibly could be found liable in a civil suit).
In the same way, the holder of a counterfeit bill is not entitled to keep the money and no one is responsible for replacing the bad bill. IF it can be proved that the bill came from a particular person who DID know it was counterfeit, that person MIGHT be subject to criminal charges, and MIGHT be able to be sued to recover the money.
I wouldn't hold my breath in either scenario!
Again, I agree that this is not "fair" -- but we are a nation of laws, not fairness, and the courts are courts of law, not courts of justice (that's my line if I'm called for jury duty and want to try to get out of it!).
While you might have a "claim" as to the source of the counterfeit money you are holding, you would have a hard time proving that the specific bill came from a specific source -- which is why I found it so objectionable that a bank, AFTER accepting the counterfeit bill as a deposit, could LATER claim that a specific customer was the one that deposited the bad bill and take it out of that customer's account -- how can they prove it was you, if they are not identifying the money as "bad" on the spot while you're handing it to them???
--BG
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