Check RM100 notes for fakes

PETALING JAYA: Check your RM100 and RM50 notes, folks! Hold each note up to the light and if you can't see the first King's watermark portrait, it’s a fake.

Fruit vendor Loh Man, 53, discovered three days after a couple bought RM15 worth of fruits at his stall in Old Klang Road that the RM100 note they used to buy the fruits with was counterfeit.

Loh Man realised something was amiss when the colour on the note started to fade and the watermark of the King was missing when the note was held up to the light.

1) The security thread on a real note is embedded in the bill and appears on the reverse side of the note as a silver dotted line. When the note is held up against light, it is seen as a continuous dark line and the repeated text 'BNMRM100' can be read. This feature is missing on the counterfeit note, where the 'security thread' appears as a silver dotted line.

2) No raised Braille feature on the counterfeit note.

3) The holographic design on the LEADA (Long-lasting Economical Anti-copy Device) strip represents the same motif as used in the purple patch as well as the text 'BNMRM100'. The colour of these elements change when the viewing angle is changed. The counterfeit note features just a silver thread with a floral pattern.

4) The portrait of the first King on the right of the real note is raised (Intaglio Print). This effect is missing on the fake note.

5) Watermark portrait of the first King is missing in the counterfeit note. The numeral 100 watermark at the base of the King's watermark is also missing.

He sought the help of MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong who said this was the first RM100 fake note he had come across. He said he had been previously alerted of RM50 fake notes.

“Just hold the notes up to the light and check,” he advised the public at a press conference.

“The watermark portrait can be seen easily. At the base of the watermark, the numeral 100 is clearly visible in a real note but absent in counterfeit ones,” he said, adding that fake notes were also deeper in colour.

To demonstrate how easy it was to pass off the RM100 fake note as the real thing, Chong and a few reporters tested them out on merchants, who thought the notes to be real.

“I am very surprised that I managed to get through five merchants without being detected,” Chong said, adding that one trader took a close look at the note but still did not suspect anything.

Chong said he had seen a number of fake RM50 notes but claimed that Loh's fake RM100 note was more sophisticated.

”I will bring the matter up to Bank Negara,” he said.