Petrol pump staff take a hit from fake currency notes

Petrol pump attendants are in a fix. Some customers pass off fake currency notes and they cannot do much about it in the absence of counterfeit currency detectors.

A number of employees told Emirates 24|7 that they use their expertise to decide whether the currency notes given by customers are genuine.

Some of the staff at filling stations had their salary cut by the company to recover the money lost due to fake currency notes that the salesmen accepted without proper verification.

The employees say they do not have any device to check the authenticity of the notes. When they are given a high denomination note, especially at night, they examine it several times to ensure that it is genuine.

Counterfeit currency detector pens costing $10 or so are used by salesmen in Adnoc petrol stations.

 “There have been a few cases of fake currency notes being passed off at petrol stations. We are suspicious of customers who give Dh200 and Dh500 notes,” said Prasad, an employee of a petrol pump in Dubai.

“We don’t have any devices to check the currency. There is one UV detector inside the convenience store, but we cannot leave the pump every time we need to check a currency note. Sometimes the customer leaves when we go inside,” he added.

The view was echoed by other petrol pump employees, who said some of the experienced staff can easily detect fake currency notes. If they fail in their judgment, an equivalent amount is deducted from their paltry salary.

A supervisor at a Sharjah petrol station said: “Normally they don’t get time to check the authenticity of the notes. Only if customers give high denomination notes of Dh500 or Dh1,000 they go into the convenience store and check whether it is genuine. On busy days they don’t bother to check the notes.”

And so some employees end up with fake currency notes given by customers.

While the experienced employees may be vigilant, the newly recruited staff faces more difficulty because they cannot make out whether a note is genuine or fake.

By using a UV detector, the water mark, security threads and the fluorescent UV properties of the notes can be seen.

Adnoc Distribution, the leading fuel retailer of Abu Dhabi, has distributed pen-sized fake currency detectors to the petrol pump staff.

“We have two pen-sized UV detectors in each petrol pump. In addition, there is a big fake note detector inside the Adnoc convenience stores. The problem occurs during peak time when the employees are very busy and sometimes overlook such cases,” said an employee of Adnoc petrol station in Sharjah.

In a majority of fake currency cases, it is possible to detect the notes using an ultra violet detector, which is available for less than Dh50.

A counterfeit detector pen costing around $5 offers two tests in one device.

One end has a counterfeit detector pen and the other end has an extra low spectrum ultraviolet LED light. When paper currency is marked with the pen the colour of the mark indicates if the currency is suspect.

By using a powerful UV light people can check the UV sensitive thread found in notes.

“There have been instances when our colleagues have ended up with fake notes. We normally look for the eagle sign on the note and sometimes fake notes are detected only at the bank when they are taken there to deposit the daily collection.

This issue mostly affects the new employees. They end up losing money,” said an employee of a petrol pump in Ajman.

“We have many fake notes in our custody. Some customers give notes whose one side is genuine while the other side is a duplicate.

It seems they are splitting original notes into two and using the two genuine parts to create two fake notes.

If the salesman inspects the genuine side of the note, he will accept it. Only later he will realise that the note is a forgery,” said a salesman.

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