SARB: Citizens afraid to come forward after being scammed with counterfeit money
The South African Reserve Bank says some citizens are afraid to report incidents where they have been scammed with counterfeit money.
Officials from SARB's Currency Integrity Department held a community engagement with businesses, local police and members of the Community Policing Forum in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday.
They used the opportunity not just to educate stakeholders on counterfeiting but also on authenticating banknotes and coins.
It's after a woman was arrested for allegedly producing and selling counterfeit notes in Mountain Rise.
The 43-year-old woman was nabbed around a month ago.
"We do have a case where a person will say maybe I did Identify and didn't know what to do with it, so I just perpetuated the process - I went and bought it. Again, it's not always a case of malicious intent, but it's a case of it happened to me, I don't want to report it because I'm going to lose out," says SARB's Phenyo Marumo.
"So let me rather let it circulate; again, it might not come from a mind of malicious intent. It might come from I don't want to be the only one who loses out or I'm afraid I might be the one that is blamed for producing counterfeit."
He says citizens need more education on our currency.
"Give them a little bit of a brief around the upgraded bank notes and coins - the differences between the current and the upgrade."
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