What we know about the counterfeit $50 notes circulating in Lebanon

A few days ago, Philippe, a young Lebanese living in Paris, listened to his father complain on the phone from Lebanon. The latter was returning from a gas station which had refused him a $50 bill when he wanted to make a payment. For good reason: rumors circulating about counterfeit 50 dollar notes which are flooding the Lebanese market and which then encouraged traders to no longer accept them.

However, Lebanon, plunged into an economic crisis since 2019, has become fertile ground for the proliferation of a cash economy – estimated at $9.9 billion or 45.7% of GDP in 2022 by the World Bank. making the country particularly vulnerable to counterfeit notes.

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For Majd el-Masri, president of the union of exchange offices in Lebanon, it seems that this problem extends beyond Lebanon, while Turkey, the country of origin of these notes according to some rumors, is also facing this same situation since the end of November. Note that at the end of October, the Internal Security Forces (ISF) arrested a 44-year-old woman who was carrying two briefcases filled with counterfeit notes worth a total of $271,500 and who was trying to leave Lebanese territory for Turkey.

“We contacted counterfeit detector companies abroad and were surprised to learn that five or six other countries, including Iraq, Georgia and Armenia, are also facing this same problem », Indicates Khalil Najjar, owner of the Lebanese Equipment Company (LEC), distributor of counterfeit detectors of the Lidix and Double Power brands.

But what is more worrying than other cases of counterfeit banknotes in circulation is the fact that these banknotes are undetectable by most counterfeit banknote detectors. “It is very difficult to distinguish them from real notes. They are very good fakes,” declared a banker to The Orient-The Dayunder cover of anonymity. “The machines we have in our ordinary branches are standard machines and have not been able to detect counterfeit notes. On the other hand, the larger machines that we have at headquarters, and which are generally more sophisticated and more expensive, were more successful in detecting them,” he adds.

$350 million, an exaggerated figure

Although several media outlets had estimated the value of counterfeit banknotes in circulation on the local market at around $350 million, the aforementioned banking source emphasizes that these figures are greatly exaggerated. Majd el-Masri, who is of the same opinion, affirms for his part that the real amount, even if it is lower, cannot be confirmed. “We have only spotted a few dozen counterfeit notes so far,” continues the banker.

The 32 serial numbers which would concern the counterfeit 50 dollar bills in circulation. Photo having been widely shared and whose veracity “L’Orient-Le Jour” was unable to verify.

In recent days, a list containing 32 serial numbers, found on one-dollar bills, has been widely shared, urging the public to be wary of bills containing one of these numbers, as some may be fake. The Orient-The Day was not able to verify the source of this photo, nor the veracity of its content. However, this same banker wishes to point out: “Not all the banknotes which bore these numbers were counterfeit, but all the counterfeit banknotes that we were able to detect bore these numbers. » In this same context, other rumors were circulating concerning counterfeit 100 dollar bills which would also have been introduced into Lebanon, but the banker claims to have found none to date.

To deal with this situation, companies, banks and exchange offices have had to update or change their counterfeit detectors, the purchase price of which is generally between 800 and 11,000 dollars.

“There are three solutions to consider, depending on the machine model and its age: new machines, or those purchased in 2024, should only require a software update, while older machines (or those purchased within the last three years) may need both hardware and software updates. Even older machines will probably need to be completely replaced,” says Khalil Najjar, who now receives nearly 70 phone calls and orders per day since the rumors began to circulate.

How to protect yourself

While some of these customers were able to update their machines, others will have to wait another two to three weeks. “Any updates or improvements must be coordinated with parent companies overseas. However, the war between Israel and Hezbollah has caused considerable delays in shipping the new parts needed, and many of our orders are still stuck in Dubai. This situation in turn causes delays for our customers,” adds Khalil Najjar.

If it is difficult for the average citizen to distinguish real notes from counterfeit notes, Majd el-Masri recommends that Lebanese people contact the approximately 300 officially registered money changers who can help them check their notes. “People can ask the money changer for the receipt that the detector gives, with the serial numbers of the tickets, signed and stamped,” he explains. This would constitute a form of guarantee for citizens, who could then return to the exchange agent and demand new notes if they found themselves with counterfeits, according to him.

“Banks should be able to do the same, but some of them currently do not give or accept $50 notes because they are waiting for their machines to be updated,” concludes Majd el-Masri.