CHUMPHON, Thailand – A shop owner in Chumphon narrowly avoided becoming a victim of a counterfeit banknote scam after spotting suspicious cash before completing a money transfer, causing two suspects to flee the scene. On July 27, at around 3 p.m., two young men arrived at Sapli Mobile Shop on the Chumphon–Sapli Road in Pathio District, asking the owner for help transferring money into a bank account. The shop owner, identified as Ms. Orawan, 36, said one of the men spoke with a local accent and provided a bank account number for the transfer. She noticed that the account was registered under a woman’s name, which did not match either of the two men, but decided to first check the cash they provided before making the transaction.
The man handed over five 1,000-baht banknotes as payment. However, Ms. Orawan became suspicious after examining the bills closely. She checked the security features, including the watermark, and used a counterfeit detection pen. The inspection revealed that four of the five notes were fake. The counterfeit bills reportedly lacked important security features, had unusual paper quality and did not show the expected portrait image, while only one note was genuine.
When confronted, the man claimed he did not know the banknotes were counterfeit and said he had received the money from someone else. Ms. Orawan told him she would return only the genuine banknote and keep the counterfeit notes as evidence for police. The two men became nervous and quickly left the shop before riding away on a motorcycle. Ms. Orawan said she had previously heard reports of counterfeit 1,000-baht notes being used at local shops, although she never expected it would happen at her own business. She plans to hand over the fake banknotes to Pathio Police Station as evidence and requested authorities investigate and identify those involved.
