Two man have been arrested on police crackdown on a counterfeit money factory which officials believe was connected to most cases of counterfeit bills that have turned up in the city over the past six months.

The Commercial Crime Bureau sounded the alarm to the general public over what it called poor-quality counterfeit HK$100 notes at a news conference on Wednesday.

Detectives arrested a man found spending bogus bills at a street market on Java Road at North Point on Tuesday. Later Police broke into the counterfeiting factory located in a flat in Sham Shui Po. The second man was arrested at the location.

Police seized 36 fake notes, bearing the same serial number, FV398622, together with several semi-completed notes with a face value of HK$200,000.

All of the seized notes were HK$100 bills. The police also found printing equipment.

Tommy Cheng Ka-wai, chief inspector, said the notes are of a very poor quality. People can easily distinguish the fakes through several features.

The notes were printed with the commonest printing papers.

As a result, they are smooth to the touch, whereas the surface of authentic banknotes feels slightly irregular.

The fakes also have no watermarks or optical variable ink.

The "metal security threads" of the notes are not metal really.

The colors of the fake notes fade when the bills are moistened.

The police believe the criminals spent the poor-quality fake notes in busy, crowded places such as markets, where people tend to be less alert when dealing with the notes of the commonly seen denomination.

Superintendent Ravy Fong Kwok-wah said he believes the arrested were related to most fake money cases over the past half a year.

Fong said the police seized 568 fake HK$100 notes during the first five month of this year. The number reflects a significant increase, or nearly double, when compared with the same period last year, he said.

The two suspects remain in custody. They are expected to be charged with using counterfeit banknotes.

guojiaxue@chinadailyhk.com

China Daily

(HK Edition 07/07/2011 page1)