As more Chinese tourists come in to visit Korea, with a corresponding rise in bilateral trade volume, yuan counterfeits have been on the rise. (image: DavidDennisPhotos.com/flickr)
SEOUL, May 12 (Korea Bizwire) – A 100-yuan counterfeit bill has been found in a bank in Cheongju. The instance of fake yuan bills has doubled in Korea within the past three years.
According to the Cheongju Sangdang District Police Station on May 9, an officer at a downtown bank branch office found a forged bill out of ten 100-yuan bills brought in to the bank by a customer named Ahn for exchange. A bill of 100 yuan is equivalent to about US$16.
As more Chinese tourists come in to visit Korea, with a corresponding rise in bilateral trade volume, yuan counterfeits have been on the rise. According to National Assemblyman Kim Han-pyo (New Frontier Party) on March 26 based on data provided by the Bank of Korea, the total number of counterfeit bills found last year was 3,585, down 61 percent from 9,289 in 2010.
By bill type, the 50,000-won bills were reduced to 84 in 2013 from 112 in 2010. The 10,000-won bills also declined to 909 from 2,956 three years ago. Other smaller bogus bills such as 5,000-won and 1,000-won bills were found 2,562 and 30, respectively.
As the number of domestic currency fake bills is falling rapidly, phony foreign currency bills have risen 40 percent to 803 from 588 in 2010. Of these, the number of yuan fake bills more than doubled to 160 from 78 three years ago.
As for the U.S. dollar bills, the number of counterfeits rose slightly to 545 from 467 in three years. The euro bills also dropped to 12 from 23 during the same period.
Written by Sean Chung (schung10@koreabizwire.com)
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