A unidentified man asked a clerk at a Giant Eagle store in Pittsburgh to make change on a $1 million dollar bill featuring Grover Cleveland’s portrait. When the cashier refused and confiscated the fake money, the man attacked an electronic funds transfer machine and then reached for her price scanning gun.
counterfeit
Chinese Fake Harry Potter Is Awesome; Also A Dragon
By 8.11.07
Officials might consider counterfeit Chinese “translations” of copyrighted work illegal, but we like to think of them as the marketplace’s version of outsider art; it’s like fanfic and Lulu.com got together and opened up a bookstore in Shanghai. The New York Times teases its readers with awesome excerpts from a handful of recent Harry Potter knockoffs, with titles far better than the real ones:
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Harry Potter and the Chinese Porcelain Doll
Harry Potter and the Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon
Harry Potter and the Chinese Overseas Students at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Fake Toxic Colgate Still On Store Shelves
By 6.18.07
The Herald News of New Jersey conducted an informal survey of local dollar stores and found that 4 out of 9 were still selling fake Colgate toothpaste flavored with a toxic chemical more commonly found in antifreeze. The FDA reminds you:
The counterfeit toothpaste can be easily recognized because it is labeled as “Manufactured in South Africa.” Colgate does not import toothpaste into the United States from South Africa. In addition, the counterfeit packages examined so far have several misspellings including: “isclinically” “SOUTH AFRLCA” “South African Dental Assoxiation”.
Colgate did not manufacture the fake toothpaste and claims that the health risk of the counterfeit paste is minimal.
How To Make A Counterfeit Egg, China Style
By 5.4.07
UPDATE: It’s possible this story is a hoax. BoingBoing compared believing it to believing in eBayed unicorns.
Hey, Bank of America! Your ATM Gave Me A Fake $20
By 4.25.07
We’d always sort of assumed that someone had to check the to make sure money was real before they put it into an ATM, but apparently a few fake bills have been known to slip by. Wealth Junkie blogger Alexander had $4 in his wallet when he stopped by a Bank of America ATM to get cash for his Costco shopping trip. When a cashier at Costco spotted a fake $20, Alexander knew exactly where it came from.
Fake Electronics (Yes, We’ll Take Some)
By 1.9.06
PC World has an interesting, if disturbing article about counterfeit electronics hardware and what you can do to prevent having a knock-off cell phone battery explode through your chest. (The answer? Not a whole lot, actually.)
