moondog

We all know Guangzhou is notorious for its counterfiet bills, but now the trend seems to be spreading to Shanghai. And, since foreigners are the prime targets, you guys should take note.

Taxi drivers are the main culprits and 50s are the most counterfieted. One of my (Japanese) flight attendant friends has been scammed 6 times during the past 8 months (pay with 100; get back a crap 50).

On a semi-related note, for those of you that perfer Jiaotong cards to cash, some drivers have also grown fond of switching good cards for worthless ones on the sly.

Moral to story: try to use exact change OR watch closely if you pay by card.

anacapamalibu

I noticed in the Shanghai taxi a sign ... if the driver will not accept
the Shanghai Public Transportation Card...you do not have to pay. So
twice the drivers said .. I already canceled out the meter so I can only accept cash. I didn't want to pay...but my Chinese friend said you must pay or you will
loose face. What's up with that!

Bowgie

[QUOTE=moondog]We all know Guangzhou is notorious for its counterfiet bills, but now the trend seems to be spreading to Shanghai.[QUOTE]

Thanks for warning.

Much more this trip than before, in the region in and around Shanghai, EVERY time I passed a 100 yuan note, the merchant looked at like a Secret Service agent.

As reported above, many Shanghai taxis has the signs that the driver must accept the cash card.

This is weird because I can see lots of hard-to-counterfeit security devices in the 100 yuan note, which is only worth about $12.40 U.S.

anacapamalibu

As reported above, many Shanghai taxis has the signs that the driver must accept the cash card.




I jokingly told my friend I bought the taxi card at XY market for 100 RMB and it had 500 rmb in time on it. Wonder if you can buy them at XY market...they got about everything else there?

HKtraveller

I just got a couple of money tester pens, that are widely used in Germany.
If the paper is real, the light yellow mark with this pens fades. If on fake paper, it turns dark. I have a friend working in a bank in China and will test it on fake bills there tomorrow. What I already do know is that on real RMB bills it works fine.
Since it is very unlikely that they use real paper faking money in China. So the test should be pretty accurate.
Anybody interested in the result, please pm me.

XFed2001

HKtraveller, any reason why you wouldn't share the result with all of us FTers? Incidentally, where might we get a money tester pen in the states? Thanks

jpdx

You can get them at Office Depot, Staples, and the like, for $7.99 or so. They don't work for all currencies, though.

HKtraveller

I don't want to publish anything before it is sure that it works. I have no clue where you get them in the US. I do know that they don't work for money that is not on textile paper basis, like Australian Dollars or the 50 Thai Baht bill.
As soon as I get all information I will post it.

HKtraveller

After testing the money-tester-pen in China, the result is:
It is working on counterfeit money on fake paper, but out of all the bills we tested, there was one 50 RMB bill on which it didn't work, most likely because they used money-paper on textile basis. I got this bill on hand and will send it to the German representative of the money pen producer, to see what can be done about this.
Furthermore will I ask for the sales representatives in the US.

So using this pen is no guarantee, but a high percentage can be detected.
The undetectable bill was still easy to recognize as a fake. The watermark was yellowish on the surface, not inside the paper.
But hard to see at night in a taxi.

Keep small change for the taxis and bars, or where possible, use the transportation card instead of cash!

mush

Always use the transit cards if you possibly can, and as noted, never take back 50s, which are indeed becoming the counterfeit of choice; the locals have warned me they won't touch them (which is how I was alerted to the scope of the problem).

I have seen a few times when the cards don't work well, but it's very rare.

aurigakb

how to not accept the change you are given? insist on smaller denominations?

moondog

I wouldn't try to force this issue because both 100s and 50s are inconvenient for cabbies so it's not unreasonable to allow them to exchange one inconvenience for another (v. sucking up 8 y10 notes from their change stash).

In other words, in cases where you don't have small bills or a Jiaotong card handy, I think it's bad manners not to accept the (small) risk of getting scammed. Also, from what I've heard, you don't need a fancy money pen to weed out the vast majority of fake bills.

Furthermore, I think I might have caused unnecessary alarm in my OP. The problem in question is not yet widespread in SH. And, with minimal advance planning, it can be avoided entirely.

travelinmanS

My strategy here in Guangzhou is to always sit in the front of the taxi, regardless of the signs they have prohibiting it. This is the single most important thing you can do in China to avoid getting fake bills from cabbies. That way when I pay I can see everything the driver is doing with the money. Here in GZ they mostly have the "steel cage match" type bars separating the back and the front seating areas so its easy for the drivers to switch money on unsuspecting passengers.

My girlfriend has had it happen twice when sitting in the back, I've never had it happen and I always sit in the front (no matter how excruciatingly uncomfortable it is!). The trick they used on her last time was to accept her hundred, then give it back saying its fake. She, initially offered a real one, the guy somehow switched it and gave her the fake back. A real sneaky dude!

moondog

I first read about the Guangzhou scam ~2 years ago right here and have heard about it numerous times since.

But, prompted by your post, this evening, I decided to poll friends of mine on the topic. In the process, I learned that it is now more widespread than ever, to the extent that major hotels have put up signs encouraging guests to change their 100s before setting out. Two of my friends (one who has a clue, and another that isn't quite as saavy) were conned a total of 3 times during a recent 1-week trip.

HKtraveller

I have some advice that might help in Shanghai. If you stick with the turcoise or golden colour taxis, a scam is more unlikely. If something happens, get the drivers number and call the company (or have someone call).