Fake £5 note targets UK online shoppers at Christmas

Reverse view of 2002 old style note

Luxury Income Club fight against fraud warn British shoppers to check their new £5 notes aren't counterfeit as online scammers launch an online scam ahead of the Xmas rush.

The old British banknotes are the being used and but reports from MSN money says the new £5 polymer note is also being used. Despite the Bank of England introducing a number of features to counteract fraudulent copies of the new polymer notes, they are warning people to remain vigilant and check their notes.

In the first half of 2016, approximately 152,000 counterfeit banknotes were removed from UK streets. Last year, the value of notes seized was over £5 million.

Ben Crosland, Senior Manager of the Banknote Education team at the Bank of England, said: "Christmas is a busy time for both retailers and the public, and unfortunately it provides an opportunity for criminals to pass on counterfeit notes as payment.

"While we work hard to stay one step ahead of fraudsters, it is important people check security features on the £5, £10, £20 and £50 banknotes when they are passed in transactions."

Crimestoppers have received an increasing amount of reports that scam artists have been paying for goods on Gumtree and Facebook with the counterfeit notes when meeting the sellers in person.

Crimestoppers' Chief Executive Mark Hallas, said: "The purpose of this campaign is to raise awareness of counterfeit money, especially around Christmas when there are more transactions happening and money can be tight. Purchasing counterfeit notes can be tempting and many people do not realise that, not only are these notes completely worthless, but knowingly holding or passing them on is a crime.

People can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously with information on 0800 555 111, safe in the knowledge that they will never have to give a statement to police or go to court."

How to check if your £5 is real or fake

Check the see-through window and the portrait of the Queen is correct

Look at the Elizabeth tower to check it is gold on the front of the note and silver on the back

Check the foil patches

On paper banknotes, feel for raised print across the words 'Bank of England'

Also on paper notes hold it up to the light to check the watermark and look for the metallic thread running through every genuine paper note

Thousands of people slated the Bank of England last month after they were shocked to discover the notes contained animal fat .

The Bank of England said the supplier of its new £5 note is looking at "potential solutions" to change the materials that make their new note to make it vegan-friendly.

The Bank said it was "aware of some people's concerns" about traces of the derivative, known as tallow, in its polymer note since being introduced into circulation in September.

A number of notes have also sold for astronomical levels after collectors forked out up £80,000 for ones with rare serial codes.

Some collectors are willing to pay more than 40 times the monetary value of the note for the chance to claim that they own a polymer £5 note that is among the very first the Bank of England ever produced,

Go to fakenotes.co.uk for more information.

Download the Luxury Income Club Online Scam Survival Guide for more help, tips and advice.

Remember; if something looks too good to be true, it usually is. Share with us your experiences of possible fraudulent activity and we will ensure it is followed up with the relevant authorities and happy shopping.

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Facebook:Advertisements for counterfeit goods are showing up on users Facebook pages

Police with seized counterfeit goods

The seizure of dozens of websites selling fake goods announced by federal authorities Thursday is the latest proof that online counterfeiters are employing ever more sophisticated tactics to lead consumers astray.

After a four-month probe called Project Copy Cat, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators shut down 70 sites designed to be mirror-images of real ones.

The fake sites purported to sell items such as official San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders jerseys, Louis Vuitton bags and upscale Beats by Dr. Dre headphones. They used Web addresses like "tiffanyandcojewelrysale.net" that could appear similar to the URLs of the true sites.

The sites even used images of Secure Sockets Layer certificates - often seen as a padlock logo - to trick customers into thinking they were financially secure and verified.

Businesses that trade in ersatz merchandise, from sports apparel to jewelry to DVDs, have long used the Internet to sell their wares. Stopping them has been like playing a game of whack-a-mole, said NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy.

But now counterfeiters are using technology with an increasing level of sophistication, which poses new problems for companies trying to protect their brands and shoppers trying to protect their wallets.

Facebook ads

A social-media marketer who is waging his own campaign to get Facebook to crack down harder on counterfeiters said he's catalogued 7,000 examples of ads for fake products on the social network. One he cited used images of 49ers legends Joe Montana and Jerry Rice to tout a "Cheap jersey, only $18."

"Why am I catching this and they're not?" said Eric Feinberg, creator of the ad hoc Fans AgainstKounterfeit Enterprise, or FAKE. "We're talking about two of the most iconic 49ers of all time getting used. If you want to be a publicly traded company, you have to have oversight, and there's no oversight here."

Feinberg said he did work for sports-related clients who used social media to get people talking about their products. But his work was stymied by Facebook ads that led to counterfeit sites based in China.

Facebook's ads use members' favorite topics, interests and "likes" to push more relevant ads to them. Feinberg said instead of finding a fake site by searching through Google, "This is searching me."

Masquerading as 'real deal'

The copycat trend is "alarming," said John Morton, director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an investigative unit of the Department of Homeland Security.

"The fake sites and the real sites are almost indistinguishable," he said. "And the fake sites aren't offering obvious knockoffs. They are trying to masquerade as the real deal."

Sites that offered fake Major League Baseball merchandise were so realistic that a buyer would have to be familiar with a team's current roster of players to know they weren't real, he said.

The copycat sites didn't have abnormally low prices, one of the usual tell-tale signs. Instead, they offered goods or services that were "close to or near the legitimate prices," which would also give counterfeiters a higher profit margin, Morton said.

The goods ordered by undercover officers were shipped to the United States from other countries, and Morton said most of the fake sites were linked to China. No arrests have been made, although the investigation is continuing.

One step ahead?

Morton said the investigation did not focus on Facebook ads, but that's an area where New York social-media marketer Feinberg believes counterfeiters are already one step ahead of the law.

In January, he set up fake Facebook accounts to bait the counterfeiters and began seeing more ads. Some were comically obvious, like one for a pair of "Oakley 29 $" sunglasses.

And this week, his personal Facebook account received a "friend request" from a member named "Nflcn JerseysShop," which then posted links on his wall to a site in China that offered a variety of sports apparel.

Feinberg contacted Facebook last month to call attention to the sites, but received a letter that said the Menlo Park company could only act if it received a report from the authorized copyright or trademark owner.

"I want to know if Facebook is making revenue off this," Feinberg said.

Ad guidelines

A Facebook spokeswoman said the company acts immediately when notified of a problem ad.

In a statement, the company said it does "strive to create a trusted environment for our users and advertisers. We offer the ability for users to provide immediate feedback on our ads and encourage them to report anything they find offensive or misleading. We have a team dedicated to investigating ads and user complaints, and we will remove ads that users bring to our attention if they violate our ad guidelines."

Facebook is also a founding member - along with Google, Twitter, AOL and the Interactive Advertising Bureau - of the Ads Integrity Alliance, a group started last month to share information and develop policies to protect consumers from the kind of "malvertising" that FAKE complains about.

"It's enough of a problem that some of the biggest players in online advertising decided to get together," said Maxim Weinstein, the alliance's leader and president of the nonprofit group StopBadware.

"This would be bad for consumers and the industry if we got to the point where people say I don't trust online ads and I'm not going to click on them anymore," he said.

Content thank you: Benny Evangelista is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: bevangelista@sfchronicle.com

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