Counterfeit euros in circulation, police warn

The police’s national analysis centre on Friday warned the public that two types of counterfeit banknotes of various denominations are circulating in Cyprus.

In its announcement, police described how to spot the fake €10, €20, €50 and €100 bills.

First, they are the so-called ‘Movie Money’ which have the words ‘movie money’ written under the EU flag on the left corner of the front side of the bill. They also carry the words ‘THIS IS NOT LEGAL TENDER, IT S USED FOR MOTION PROPS’ and the word ‘PRΩP’ instead of the Greek ‘ΕΥΡΩ’ between the words euro and ‘EBPO’.

To help identify them, police said the counterfeit €10 bills carry the number MB6666888880, the €20 bills the number MB66688880, the €50 MB6666888880 while the €100 have DB666880000 written on the back side.

The second type of counterfeit money identified are €20 bills with the words ‘Prop copy’ or ‘copy’ printed on their front side. Sometimes the text has been erased using Tipp-ex, police said. Those bills carry the numbers UC1366259581.