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Flowers: It is important to avoid large bills

Photo: Boris Roessler / dpa

Counterfeiters in Germany and Europe brought significantly more flowers to the people last year. According to the Bundesbank, police, retailers and banks removed almost 56,600 counterfeit euro banknotes from circulation in Germany. That was a good 28 percent more than a year before. "The increase in the number of counterfeit money is due to a few larger cases of fraud, primarily with counterfeit 200 and 500 euro banknotes," explained Bundesbank board member Burkhard Balz.

"Despite the significantly higher number of counterfeits, the risk for normal citizens of coming into contact with counterfeit money is still low," emphasized Balz. According to calculations by the Bundesbank, on average in Germany in 2023 there would be seven of the so-called blossoms for every 10,000 inhabitants. "The numbers are far away from the all-time high of 2015," explained Balz. At that time, 95,400 flowers were taken out of circulation in Germany.

Risk remains low

Last year, a number of major fraud cases involving false 200s and 500s being foisted on sellers of luxury goods such as jewelry, watches and cars drove up the numbers. As a result, the amount of damage almost doubled from 2.7 million euros in 2022 to 5.1 million euros last year. The highest calculated damage caused by counterfeit money in Germany occurred in 2004 at 6.1 million euros. Although production and issuance of the 500 euro banknote was stopped in 2019, the purple notes still in circulation are still legal tender.

However, the analysis also reveals a simple trick that you can use to protect yourself from greater damage caused by counterfeit money: refuse to accept large bills. You should definitely resist the first reflex of simply passing the flowers on. Passing on data is just as punishable as putting it on the market.

The Bundesbank also recorded a significant increase in counterfeit coins in 2023. Almost 116,000 units were taken out of circulation, compared to a good 73,000 a year earlier. The Bundesbank explains this primarily by saying that some companies collected suspicious hard money over a long period of time and only submitted it to the Bundesbank last year. In addition, counterfeit 2 euro coins were increasingly appearing.

In Europe as a whole, the number of Euro flowers seized also rose significantly last year by 24.2 percent to 467,000. On average, there were 14 counterfeit notes per 10,000 residents. The volume of damage increased year-on-year from 21.5 million euros to 25 million euros.

mik/dpa AFX