The U.S. Secret Service and local police aren't commenting on a family of counterfeiters who are expected to have been in Missoula recently, attempting to use fake $ 20 bills at The Stone of Accord and The Traveler's Inn Motel.

An affidavit filed with U.S. District Court in Missoula lists the adult suspects as Alisa Bailey and Sidney Rogers, but both individuals have used many aliases in the past. Although he couldn't talk about the investigation, U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Ian Blair was able to describe how to detect the fake bills.

"The best [proof] to look for are what we call the water mark and the security strip," Blair said. "If you hold the bill up to the light you should see a faint watermark photo of Andrew Jackson on the right side and then on the left side you should see the security ship which should say 20 on it."

Another tell, is the use of color shifting ink.

"If you look at the bill on the front, there's a 20 on the bottom right hand corner," Blair said. "If you shift it toward you and away from you, you should see it changing colors. I can say that the bills associated to the case we've talked about do not have any of those three things."

$20 in Light
Photo courtesy of Jon King
loading...

Blair said that Missoula is not the only Montana city where the counterfeit bills have popped up. He said that banks across Montana have been reporting counterfeit deposits on a daily basis for the past few weeks.

More From KMMS-KPRK 1450 AM