• Investigators from the Central Counterfeiting Counterfeiting Office have arrested three people suspected of having used counterfeit 100 euro notes, bought on Snapchat, to pay for their purchases in stores.

  • The total damage is estimated at around 13,000 euros.

  • The suspects will be tried in January 2023.

Furniture, sports equipment, gasoline, meals, shoes, gift cards... Between May and July, criminals scoured stores and fast food outlets in the Paris region and paid for their purchases using counterfeit 100 euro banknotes.

After several months of investigations, investigators from the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ) arrested four suspects, three men and one woman.

At the end of their police custody, they were referred and were to be tried in immediate appearance before the court of Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis).

The hearing, which was to be held on November 24, was postponed to January 2023. In the meantime, they were left free despite the fact that they were in a state of great legal recidivism.

“prop copy”

The case started when investigators from the Central Office for the Repression of Counterfeit Currency (OCRFM) noticed in June that more and more counterfeit 100 euro notes were circulating in the Paris region.

“The counterfeit euros are all referenced.

This one was already known, it is quite old and comes from Italy, a country where there are a lot of counterfeit money production pharmacies and which flood a good part of Europe, "explains Commissioner Yanette Bois, the head of OCRFM.

The holders of these tickets then use them in But stores, JD sport, in Shell service stations and even at McDonald's.

Investigators meticulously go through the images captured by surveillance cameras.

They end up identifying three young adults, from a city of Aulnay-sous-Bois, who are arrested and placed in police custody.

In front of the police, the suspects admit the facts.

During searches, the sum of 3,255 euros in cash was found.

But also counterfeit notes of 50, 100 euros and dollars, which have the particularity of being used for the cinema.

They look like the real ones but the mention "prop copy" is written on them.

In all, the police found 500 bundles of 100 euros and 500 of 50 euros.

The suspects say they got them on Snapchat and claim not to have intended to use them.

Financing scam

Explanations that leave the police speechless, given that they have already sold around 13,000 euros in real counterfeit notes, those made in Italy by professional crooks.

"It's quite worrying to see how easily anyone can get fake banknotes on social networks for a third of their real value, and then use them with more or less difficulty," said Commissioner Bois. .

The sellers of these imitations sometimes scam their customers, specifies the policewoman, by posting photos of real tickets presented as very realistic fakes.

But buyers never see them arrive, or receive a few “very poor quality, unusable” ones.

In addition, the suspects are suspected of having set up "a financing scam system" by constituting files with false identities.

They benefited for this from the complicity of an employee of a But store who was at the end of her contract.

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