Romanian counterfeit money up by 24 pct last year to almost 6,000 pieces

The number of counterfeit Romanian currency has increased by 24 percent last year compared to 2017, to 5,902 pieces, RON 100 bill remaining the main attraction of the forgers, central bank data show.

Of the total number of fake banknotes, only 253 were captured by the police during some specific actions before being put into circulation and 5,649 counterfeits have been detected in circulation, up 19 percent compared with 2017.

“The banknote with the highest number of counterfeits registered was RON 100 (5,566 pieces, of which 196 pieces were captured by the police), followed by the RON 50 banknote, with 298 forgeries, and RON 10 with 28 forgeries,” according to the 2018 annual report of the National Bank of Romania (BNR).