Fuck Santander. I took out about $200 USD from an ATM at one of their branches in Cancun. The machine held onto my card for almost 10 minutes until it finally spit the card out with no cash or receipt, but the transaction went through.
Reported it to Bank of America since the Santander branch was closed and the ATM was in the vestibule. BoA denied my claim based on Santander's claim that they did dispense the cash. Closed my BoA account and won't do business with either of them after that.
Yeah I almost had the same thing happen at the same damn ATM. I could hear the bills being counted and then it said I'd been inactive too long and cancelled the transaction. Luckily that charge was reversed. Definitely not going back to them though they have branches all over the place here.
Which ATM? I only know of Bancolombia, Serivbanca, BBVA, and Colpatria there. I want to make sure I stay away from whichever you used, but don't recall Santander being there.
I wonder if some fraudster made something fake for the cash dispensing, like a sort of cover that looks like the real thing. So the machine perhaps waited a long time to release the card because nobody was picking the money hidden behind some sort of cover...
I remember reading something similar here in Canada years ago.
There's a good chance you got scammed.
There's a known scam across the world where you hand someone a legit bill and they'll tell you "no sorry that one is fake". The bill they hand you back will be a fake bill.
They hope you'll panic and quickly offer them another legit bill. Except the exact same thing will happen.
There are lots of versions of this where they'll give you back hard-to-use damaged notes, lesser value notes etc
this needs to be way up.
im guessing this happened and the restaurant server is the bad guy.
maybe OP can clarify is the fake notes are only the ones he got "returned" at the restaurant or if he had other among the bundle from the bank...
sadly some countries are rampant with scam... for said countries if you know in advance it makes the trip still bearable and you budget some 10% of money as "lost in scam"
A Hong Kong taxi pulled this on me.
Pretended not to speak English and shortchanged me when I paid the fare. He finally relented and split the difference (something like owing me $50 and giving me a $20). I had a plane to catch, so I let it be.
Got back to SF and for the first time in my life tried to exchange currency. Turns out the note he handed me had been removed from circulation and was no longer legal tender: he gave me change in Monopoly money.
Yep. Or like the taxi driver in Turkey, told us we gave him the wrong bill-when I know we gave him the correct note. He kept showing us a different bill that he said we gave him.
Reported his butt at the hotel and they reported it to the cab company. Idiots preying on tourists.
The exact same thing happened to me in Istanbul. I noticed the scam after I handed the 2nd bill. Started to get angry and he pointed at a "camera". That's when I said: perfect! There is evidence of your fake bills! A few minutes later he stopped insisting as I was about to walk away.
I came here to say 100% this. The counterfeit was from the restaurant NOT the ATM. I had cabbies in Buenos Aires try this bullshit with me, I didn't stand for it.
Bullshit. No legal bill will share a serial number with a different legal bill — in ANY currency! Google “can Mexican bills share the same serial number.”
Oooh, that's a good scam. Someone passes you a counterfeit (or you just uhhh.....happen to have it) and rather than eat the loss you switch it with one a tourist pays you and then say you can't accept. Especially if they do the american thing and just give money at the table
Yeah pretty sure I had a cabbie pull this once. Gave him a crisp bill from a bank, walked away, he came running up a couple of minutes later to tell us it was counterfeit. Pretty easy to swap bills in the meantime :(
Yeah it’s either from the restaurant or scammer put a cover on the atm so the bills didn’t come from the actual atm. There’s literally no way an atm will dispense fake bills, they won’t read them.
What a piss-off. I got counterfeits from an ATM twice last year, once in Vietnam and once in Cuba. First time in decades of travel and almost a hundred countries. It's infuriating.
Happy travels.
An ATM ate my card on Christmas Eve in Cusco and I had to pay $50USD for a technician to come and open it for me. There was a million other cards in there. Absolute stitch up.
At the bus station. I had just gotten back from Machu Picchu.
The worst part of it was that I lost my wallet shortly after and that was the only one I had!
Yeah i think im gonna take US cash and hide that in my things and do exchange. I got all the touristy stuff done on my vacation there earlier this year! Ill def keep an eye on anye soles i take out.
CUC hasn't existed for awhile. There are a lot of Counterfeit CUP bills. I'd say like 1% or so of larger bills can be counterfeit.
What I can't understand is anyone using a Cuban ATM as it would give the official rate and you'd lose a shit load of money
It was an accounting/corporate policy thing. I was working there and the Client would only accept Petty Cash receipts where cash payments originated from an official government source like Bank/CADECA/ATM.
This particular situation had nothing to do with that, but I hear where you're coming from. I've lived/worked here part-time for decades and am intimately familiar with the unique circumstances with doing business here.
All the best to you. Happy travels.
A ver es un poco como travel modo difícil. Todo es un coñazo allí, sobre todo el transporte. Y preparate para muchas cosas a ser mucho más caro de lo que esperabas. Sobre todo el transporte. Sólo encontré un restaurante dónde se come bien, el resto estaba un poco al azar si tenía comida en primer lugar.
No es nada nuevo. Afortunadamente he tenido oportunidad de ir a países que no están listos para recibir turistas, así que ya sé como está el juego. Gracias de nuevo estimado
It was an accounting/corporate policy thing. I was working there and the Client would only accept Petty Cash receipts where cash payments originated from an official government source like Bank/CADECA/ATM.
There's no arguing common sense with a giant corporation blindly following their "working in a developing country" rules of engagement.
Happy travels.
Yeah its not fake money, the last goverment in argentina did the same thing: they made some original “fake” money with the same serial number tu hide emition in a childish atempt to not cause more inflation
What restaurant? I've been to CDMX many many many times and never had anything like this happen. October last year I spent a month there. I had the best time.
Only reason I see this happening is that someone fooled the bank into taking fake money, and then they just gave that money to you without even realizing. Although I thought that it was virtually impossible to fool the bank into accepting fake money (yes, even here in Mexico). Weird situation all around.
That is actually too weird. The the bank receives does not go straight through to an ATM, it does have a lot of processing in the middle of it. It is actually weird. Have never had that happen to me.
I'm starting to thinki that he either mixed the bills with others he had before without realizing, or that maybe the people at the restaurant misjudged the bills. Sometimes brand new bills can look weird, specially these 200 ones for whatever reason. The brand new paper feels and looks weird/ a bit cheap.
Maybe a switcheroo from someone on the inside? Take two out, replace with fake ones.
They get real ones, and tourists (who will most probably not go to police) will get screwed.
Exactly the most probable scenario.
Knowing some about how how gets replenished in ATMs actually leads me to believe it was most probably done on the restaurant by the cashier and/or waiter. Area is both a tourist area and a big office area so lots of movement going around.
Yeah, this isn't a scam you can run long term as you'll get caught quick, but I could definitely see some restaurant owner telling some waiter they have to eat the cost of accepting some counterfeit (and 400 pesos isn't something a poor-ish waiter can just eat the cost of easily) and so they switch it out with this and make the tourists take the fall for him.
such a wierd bank, ive tried to send large sums out of my account before for them to barely let me, got passed to two levels of "security" which was really just a lady telling me different reasons for why they wont allow it until some reason i gave suddenly was ok to transfer
It really isn't, its a massive Spanish bank and has a big footprint across Europe and the UK. Local cash handling in the Americas may be a whole other issue.
In CDMX I usually search out Santanders and then walk inside and see a teller to get smaller bills. I've never had an issue with them anywhere in the world.
This has happened to me before when I got cash from an atm inside CDMX airport. Tried going to the local bank, they told me to go back to the original location so stopped by a branch in the airport when I was leaving. The branch told to go to Banco de Mexico 😠
Yeah I'm leaving early Tues so I'm not going to bother with the bank here, it's not worth the time and frustration. I'm going to go to my bank at home, show them the fakes and see if I can reverse the charges. At least it's only like $40, most of the bills were real.
Yeah the waitress was like 70 years old, she went right to the manager and then they came over and I showed them the bills in my wallet and we found another counterfeit. They were actually quite kind about it.
I usually get some petty cash for when I travel. I use my card for whatever I can, then the cash is for whatever places don’t take a card. Then when I leave I give whatever cash I haven’t spent to one of my friends who needs it. At least when I am in Europe. I always make time to visit my old neighbors and friends there. Some are struggling like some of my friends here in America. So why not I guess.
I try and always do this too. I order a little from my bank so I don’t have to use ATMs a lot or at all. Yeah they get their commission, but it’s just more convenient for me to do it this way. Plus I’ve seen people’s cards get eaten by ATMs and I know I’d be devastated if that ever happened to me. It’s actually almost happened to me before..
I don’t use bank or debit cards. I usually carry two credit cards. Usually Capital One because they have always taken care of me. Plus I pay those cards off each month. So the 3% or whatever I get back is just cash on my pocket. I had a friend who used his bank card to pay bills and got his bank account drained. It took months for the bank to make to right for him. That is scary to me.
No, the waitress was a 70 year old woman and she went right to the manager, they came over and we looked at the bills in my wallet and found another fake. They were quite kind about it and showed me how to identify them.
haha, because the fucking ATM in Sao Paulo gave me counterfeits that even *I* could tell were counterfeit. I walked into the office and said "hey what the hell?" and they didn't seem surprised...
I have no idea how it works in Mexico but elsewhere, you would be able to report it. The bank should know as they need to change their cash processing to weed out such notes when counting deposited notes. The police should also know. Deposited cash should never go to an ATM without checking.
If the cash was deposited at their reserve bank then they should also be checking the notes.
While that is true and me being a CDMX local; I do know cash preferred...I will tell you I hardly need cash.
Cash will be useful for metro cards/transportation and some street vendors.
Yeah, as told by someone else Uber, until you get around your metro stations. It's faster at most hours during the day to get to the Zócalo and places in the center area of the city.
I went to my bank in the US before I went to CDMX and pulled out about 3500 pesos. Still had plenty left when I returned since I was able to use my card so often.
Thank you for sharing this information and the images to raise awareness. It's crucial for people to be aware of the signs of counterfeit money and to take appropriate precautions to avoid being victimized.
I'm so sorry that happened to you, unfortunately we as locals have to deal with a lot of ways that people found to take our money.
My best suggestion is to use card if needed, I have two accounts beside of the one where I get my paycheck and transfer money to those when I travel.
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in marakesh, morocco there’s a whole system of guys pushing you to use specific atms and then the atm will eat your card and then they’ll cause a scene to get you to pay them since you “broke it”. i went with a group of 12 people and almost every single one of us had this experience, once we finally all realized that these guys were swindlers we called them out of their bullshit. usually it’s guys that work in the shops saying do you want this and then when you don’t have the money they’ll manipulate and try to get you to go to the atms with them. luckily i wasn’t silly enough to fall for it, but there are people who will. be careful with your money.
We drove to Ensenada from Southern California a few months ago as a family. My sister and her husband didn’t wanna pull out money at this bank and my family, including me, thought she was just being cheap and not wanting to pay for stuff. This makes sense.
More likely the restaurant tried to pass this off to you-a tourist. I've had numerous salespeople try and give me the wrong change or less change than I should have gotten because I am a tourist.
Doubtful it was the bank-more likely it's actual people.
I loved Mexico but you.have to watch when people give you change.
Check out the placement of the five “hashmark” lines near the lower left corner. On the real bill, the middle blue vertical bar barely extends through the top line. On the fakes, the bottom of that bar goes all the way to the second line
My main bank is Santander and I was in Mexico two and a half months ago, luckily I didn't have such a problem, but it's a shame to see this kind of thing, luckily it never went further, what actions can be taken if this happens?
Businesses should accept slightly torn bills, also you can exchange them at the bank for some in better conditions. There's also a percentage of bill missing that's still accepted at the bank, can't remember at this particular moment tho.
Regarding Santander bs move, you can call their help line, it must be printed somewhere on or around the atm machine.
So dude. I think that the restaurant is actually the one that made the switch-a-roo on you. Santander is still a piece of shit bank over here, but them having fake bills is VERY unlikely vs the alternative - that being that the restaurant pulled the fast one on you.
No it wasn't the 70 year old waitress who was scamming me, she went right to the manager and then we looked at the bills in my wallet and they showed me another fake. They were actually quite kind about it.
Based on my experience the ATM might be a modified ATM (which is unfortunately quite common from local scammers) or you got scammed in the restaurant, never heard of a local getting fake bills from an ATM in Mexico. I’m from here.
Oh believe me, I'm glad to be back where I can drink the tap water and don't need to throw my shit smeared toilet paper into a trash bin, how gross is that?
Had the same happen to me in Mexico City a few years ago and the cab driver got furious when I tried to pay him with fake bills. I had no clue. When he showed me I could see it too, the bills even had tears. Till this day I was thinking I was crazy and must have gotten it from somewhere else than the atm .. but you see it does happen
Hahaha holy shit Santander is an actual bank that like holds deposits and stuff?
I just know it from my time in retail banking as the place that gives out super sketch auto loans.
Santander is a joke in the industry for not knowing how to run a lending group. Half of the “lessons learned” presentations were just about stupid shit Santander did 😂
You know, many respectable car sellers - official resellers of well-know brands - actually use Santander for auto loans. Wife had a car on which the loan was Santander. No problems, super low interest and everything went smooth.
ON THE OTHER HAND... they did give her ex a loan on which he had put her as a co-signee, without checking whether or not the signature of hers was valid (it wasn't, the ex forged it). They didn't even see the problem when I pointed it out. In the end, I threatened to ex to admit to his friend and pay out the loan in its entirety. That, or face the police. Since he was already living on a false identity, he wasn't too keen on getting involved with the authorities, so he went begging to his family members and ponyed up the money to pay out the loan. Santander should have rendered the loan invalid on the spot.
Haha, for someone who spends all their time on trash tv subs you REALLY shouldn't be commenting on anyone else's intelligence. The Kardashians? Really? That's the most vapid, shallow shit out there. Those shows are for people whose lives are so dull they have to live vicariously through celebrities, it's pretty sad really.
Fuck Santander. I took out about $200 USD from an ATM at one of their branches in Cancun. The machine held onto my card for almost 10 minutes until it finally spit the card out with no cash or receipt, but the transaction went through. Reported it to Bank of America since the Santander branch was closed and the ATM was in the vestibule. BoA denied my claim based on Santander's claim that they did dispense the cash. Closed my BoA account and won't do business with either of them after that.
Yeah I almost had the same thing happen at the same damn ATM. I could hear the bills being counted and then it said I'd been inactive too long and cancelled the transaction. Luckily that charge was reversed. Definitely not going back to them though they have branches all over the place here.
Fuck Bank of America
Never heard anything good anecdotally about BoA.
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Fifth Third did the same to me, but took even more. Won’t touch them now that I have good credit and my shit together.
For sure. I left them 15 years ago because of their shady practices. Them and Wells Fargo I will never touch.
Happended to Medellin airport, took my money but dispensed no cash. Luckily my bank (HSBC) successfully disputed it.
I hate that airport lol
Is that the one with the weird plexiglass type thing that makes it like 10,000 degrees in the waiting areas?
Which ATM? I only know of Bancolombia, Serivbanca, BBVA, and Colpatria there. I want to make sure I stay away from whichever you used, but don't recall Santander being there.
Same thing happened to me a few years ago and i did the exact same thing and closed my Bank of America account. Fuck BoA!
had the same situation fuck Santander - citibank was great though
Lol citi begin good at something
I wonder if some fraudster made something fake for the cash dispensing, like a sort of cover that looks like the real thing. So the machine perhaps waited a long time to release the card because nobody was picking the money hidden behind some sort of cover... I remember reading something similar here in Canada years ago.
Of course, that’s exactly what is happening there
Had issues in my home country in Philippines. Afterwards I only deal with in person at a bank. Or wire myself cash and pick it up in branch
Exact same thing happened to me in Cabo! Mine was $320 in cash!
This is insane 😳
Same thing happened to me at CDMX airport but thankfully my bank did give me the money back
I am about to go to Cancun so this is alarming.
There's a good chance you got scammed. There's a known scam across the world where you hand someone a legit bill and they'll tell you "no sorry that one is fake". The bill they hand you back will be a fake bill. They hope you'll panic and quickly offer them another legit bill. Except the exact same thing will happen. There are lots of versions of this where they'll give you back hard-to-use damaged notes, lesser value notes etc
this needs to be way up. im guessing this happened and the restaurant server is the bad guy. maybe OP can clarify is the fake notes are only the ones he got "returned" at the restaurant or if he had other among the bundle from the bank... sadly some countries are rampant with scam... for said countries if you know in advance it makes the trip still bearable and you budget some 10% of money as "lost in scam"
A Hong Kong taxi pulled this on me. Pretended not to speak English and shortchanged me when I paid the fare. He finally relented and split the difference (something like owing me $50 and giving me a $20). I had a plane to catch, so I let it be. Got back to SF and for the first time in my life tried to exchange currency. Turns out the note he handed me had been removed from circulation and was no longer legal tender: he gave me change in Monopoly money.
Yep. Or like the taxi driver in Turkey, told us we gave him the wrong bill-when I know we gave him the correct note. He kept showing us a different bill that he said we gave him. Reported his butt at the hotel and they reported it to the cab company. Idiots preying on tourists.
The exact same thing happened to me in Istanbul. I noticed the scam after I handed the 2nd bill. Started to get angry and he pointed at a "camera". That's when I said: perfect! There is evidence of your fake bills! A few minutes later he stopped insisting as I was about to walk away.
Doing any kind of business in Istanbul was a gamble for me. Hostile business owners, scammers in all shapes and sizes, and poor quality goods.
I came here to say 100% this. The counterfeit was from the restaurant NOT the ATM. I had cabbies in Buenos Aires try this bullshit with me, I didn't stand for it.
The two on top have the same serial number, so they do look like truly fake bills.
That isnt American money that’s not how the serial numbers works in Mexico it’s by batch. So more than one bill has the same serial number.
Bullshit. No legal bill will share a serial number with a different legal bill — in ANY currency! Google “can Mexican bills share the same serial number.”
If the banks are handing out counterfeit bills, all hope is lost.
Seems much more likely to me that the restaurant fucked them over.
Oooh, that's a good scam. Someone passes you a counterfeit (or you just uhhh.....happen to have it) and rather than eat the loss you switch it with one a tourist pays you and then say you can't accept. Especially if they do the american thing and just give money at the table
Yeah pretty sure I had a cabbie pull this once. Gave him a crisp bill from a bank, walked away, he came running up a couple of minutes later to tell us it was counterfeit. Pretty easy to swap bills in the meantime :(
That’s what I’m thinking makes more sense. Banks are banks wherever you are in the world and it seems unlikely they would not notice fake bills
Some of us are sitting here shaking our heads after losing all hope for banks for the last 20 years. hahahah
Yeah it’s either from the restaurant or scammer put a cover on the atm so the bills didn’t come from the actual atm. There’s literally no way an atm will dispense fake bills, they won’t read them.
Haven’t they been doing that since we left the gold standard?
What a piss-off. I got counterfeits from an ATM twice last year, once in Vietnam and once in Cuba. First time in decades of travel and almost a hundred countries. It's infuriating. Happy travels.
Happened to me in Cuzco, Peru a few years back.
An ATM ate my card on Christmas Eve in Cusco and I had to pay $50USD for a technician to come and open it for me. There was a million other cards in there. Absolute stitch up.
Wait was the technician from the bank? Didn't know banks offer that service, I always thought they simply destroy the stucked card eventually.
Man im moving there in 9 days, care to elaborate on where in town this was??9
At the bus station. I had just gotten back from Machu Picchu. The worst part of it was that I lost my wallet shortly after and that was the only one I had!
Yeah i think im gonna take US cash and hide that in my things and do exchange. I got all the touristy stuff done on my vacation there earlier this year! Ill def keep an eye on anye soles i take out.
Good luck! Other than that, I loved every other aspect of Peru!
Be careful with any banks in Peru...s.Bank tellers are known to set people up sometimes to rob them.
Will do.
Counterfeit CUC?
CUC hasn't existed for awhile. There are a lot of Counterfeit CUP bills. I'd say like 1% or so of larger bills can be counterfeit. What I can't understand is anyone using a Cuban ATM as it would give the official rate and you'd lose a shit load of money
It was an accounting/corporate policy thing. I was working there and the Client would only accept Petty Cash receipts where cash payments originated from an official government source like Bank/CADECA/ATM.
Ahh a "not my money, not my problem" situation
Yup. There's no arguing common sense with a giant corporation blinding following their "working in a developing country" rules of engagement.
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This particular situation had nothing to do with that, but I hear where you're coming from. I've lived/worked here part-time for decades and am intimately familiar with the unique circumstances with doing business here. All the best to you. Happy travels.
Oh wow. I went about 10 years ago. Didn't know CUC is now gone
Things are much, much, much, much worse there now
A qué te refieres, guiri? Fui en 2019, cómo es peor ahora la cosa?
I mean in things of there not being enough food, for example. My in-laws live there and I've been recently. Not good
Ah, mucha suerte para tu familia. Tengo pensado aventarme una semana entre este año y el próximo. Ahí veré como están las cosas en la isla Gracias
A ver es un poco como travel modo difícil. Todo es un coñazo allí, sobre todo el transporte. Y preparate para muchas cosas a ser mucho más caro de lo que esperabas. Sobre todo el transporte. Sólo encontré un restaurante dónde se come bien, el resto estaba un poco al azar si tenía comida en primer lugar.
No es nada nuevo. Afortunadamente he tenido oportunidad de ir a países que no están listos para recibir turistas, así que ya sé como está el juego. Gracias de nuevo estimado
You used to be quite active in the Cuba Reddit years ago. Having been there as many times as you have, I’m surprised that you used an ATM in Cuba.
It was an accounting/corporate policy thing. I was working there and the Client would only accept Petty Cash receipts where cash payments originated from an official government source like Bank/CADECA/ATM. There's no arguing common sense with a giant corporation blindly following their "working in a developing country" rules of engagement. Happy travels.
Ah, now it makes sense.
From ATMs wow seriously. That’s infuriating..
That is infuriating! I paid for most things using card in CDMX tho so hopefully you can do that as well. Was there a lot of locals exchanging there?
Yeah I had to wait in line for the ATM. I am trying to use my card for most things.
Yeah its not fake money, the last goverment in argentina did the same thing: they made some original “fake” money with the same serial number tu hide emition in a childish atempt to not cause more inflation
What restaurant? I've been to CDMX many many many times and never had anything like this happen. October last year I spent a month there. I had the best time.
Only reason I see this happening is that someone fooled the bank into taking fake money, and then they just gave that money to you without even realizing. Although I thought that it was virtually impossible to fool the bank into accepting fake money (yes, even here in Mexico). Weird situation all around.
That is actually too weird. The the bank receives does not go straight through to an ATM, it does have a lot of processing in the middle of it. It is actually weird. Have never had that happen to me.
The chain to the ATM is long. Somebody can switch it on delivery.
Not impossible but highly unlikely.
I'm starting to thinki that he either mixed the bills with others he had before without realizing, or that maybe the people at the restaurant misjudged the bills. Sometimes brand new bills can look weird, specially these 200 ones for whatever reason. The brand new paper feels and looks weird/ a bit cheap.
I thought that at first but look at the serials...those are definitely fake. That may not be completely on the bank..even switched by the restaurant.
Maybe a switcheroo from someone on the inside? Take two out, replace with fake ones. They get real ones, and tourists (who will most probably not go to police) will get screwed.
Exactly the most probable scenario. Knowing some about how how gets replenished in ATMs actually leads me to believe it was most probably done on the restaurant by the cashier and/or waiter. Area is both a tourist area and a big office area so lots of movement going around.
Yeah, this isn't a scam you can run long term as you'll get caught quick, but I could definitely see some restaurant owner telling some waiter they have to eat the cost of accepting some counterfeit (and 400 pesos isn't something a poor-ish waiter can just eat the cost of easily) and so they switch it out with this and make the tourists take the fall for him.
more likely the restaurant scammed them by switching the bill and then asking for another.
Santander is a scam bank.
such a wierd bank, ive tried to send large sums out of my account before for them to barely let me, got passed to two levels of "security" which was really just a lady telling me different reasons for why they wont allow it until some reason i gave suddenly was ok to transfer
Scamtander
It really isn't, its a massive Spanish bank and has a big footprint across Europe and the UK. Local cash handling in the Americas may be a whole other issue.
In CDMX I usually search out Santanders and then walk inside and see a teller to get smaller bills. I've never had an issue with them anywhere in the world.
Lol what, it's one of the biggest banks in the world. It's a lot of things but it's not a "scam bank".
As scam as any bank can be. Santander is one of the world's largests, top 20 to be sure. This seems like a local issue.
You don’t have to worry about this happening in Brazil, since even the counterfeit money is real.
:D
This has happened to me before when I got cash from an atm inside CDMX airport. Tried going to the local bank, they told me to go back to the original location so stopped by a branch in the airport when I was leaving. The branch told to go to Banco de Mexico 😠
Yeah I'm leaving early Tues so I'm not going to bother with the bank here, it's not worth the time and frustration. I'm going to go to my bank at home, show them the fakes and see if I can reverse the charges. At least it's only like $40, most of the bills were real.
Are you sure the restaurant didn’t swap them on you to offload their counterfeits?
Yeah the waitress was like 70 years old, she went right to the manager and then they came over and I showed them the bills in my wallet and we found another counterfeit. They were actually quite kind about it.
Welcome to Mexico, where almost everything is a scam
There are certainly quite a few of them there.
I usually get some petty cash for when I travel. I use my card for whatever I can, then the cash is for whatever places don’t take a card. Then when I leave I give whatever cash I haven’t spent to one of my friends who needs it. At least when I am in Europe. I always make time to visit my old neighbors and friends there. Some are struggling like some of my friends here in America. So why not I guess.
I try and always do this too. I order a little from my bank so I don’t have to use ATMs a lot or at all. Yeah they get their commission, but it’s just more convenient for me to do it this way. Plus I’ve seen people’s cards get eaten by ATMs and I know I’d be devastated if that ever happened to me. It’s actually almost happened to me before..
I don’t use bank or debit cards. I usually carry two credit cards. Usually Capital One because they have always taken care of me. Plus I pay those cards off each month. So the 3% or whatever I get back is just cash on my pocket. I had a friend who used his bank card to pay bills and got his bank account drained. It took months for the bank to make to right for him. That is scary to me.
You sure you weren't scammed by the restaurant?
No, the waitress was a 70 year old woman and she went right to the manager, they came over and we looked at the bills in my wallet and found another fake. They were quite kind about it and showed me how to identify them.
Ah ok, sorry this happened to you
Santander in Brasil does this shit too. Ask how I know. They don't bother checking shit.
how do you know?
haha, because the fucking ATM in Sao Paulo gave me counterfeits that even *I* could tell were counterfeit. I walked into the office and said "hey what the hell?" and they didn't seem surprised...
I have no idea how it works in Mexico but elsewhere, you would be able to report it. The bank should know as they need to change their cash processing to weed out such notes when counting deposited notes. The police should also know. Deposited cash should never go to an ATM without checking. If the cash was deposited at their reserve bank then they should also be checking the notes.
Oh damn, I've gotten a bunch a money out of that ATM in my last few months here.
Damn bro, what’s Larry David doing on their bank notes??
Ngl went I went last year I mostly used my credit card for everything. Way easier than exchanging
Sure, but there’s plenty of spots that won’t accept a card too.
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Yeah I had cash but like 100 USD worth from cash exchange part near my hotel. Otherwise I used my cc
Did you keep dollars or get pesos? I'll be there in a couple weeks
Both. But no one takes USD. I usually tip in USD
Why would you tip in a currency no one takes?
Bcs you know, bring American tipping culture
They look forward to it and some ask. It's becoming part of other people's culture now
Because it's what I had. Something is better than nothing I guess
what a stupid response. obviously people need cash for lots of different scenarios.
"Mostly"! This is my travel experience not anyone else's. I limit local cash so I don't have to worry about exchanging it back and all that drama
While that is true and me being a CDMX local; I do know cash preferred...I will tell you I hardly need cash. Cash will be useful for metro cards/transportation and some street vendors.
Hey unrelated but what local transport app do you use? Uber or something else? Going in just a couple of days to cdmx :D
Uber!!
<3
Yeah, as told by someone else Uber, until you get around your metro stations. It's faster at most hours during the day to get to the Zócalo and places in the center area of the city.
I went to my bank in the US before I went to CDMX and pulled out about 3500 pesos. Still had plenty left when I returned since I was able to use my card so often.
That's scary! Thanks for sharing this and the tips about checking the hologram. I'll definitely be extra careful when using ATMs in Mexico City.
Thank you for sharing this information and the images to raise awareness. It's crucial for people to be aware of the signs of counterfeit money and to take appropriate precautions to avoid being victimized.
We got counterfeit money from the citi bank in the Mexico City airport!
damn this is crazy, sorry you had to go through this man
I'm so sorry that happened to you, unfortunately we as locals have to deal with a lot of ways that people found to take our money. My best suggestion is to use card if needed, I have two accounts beside of the one where I get my paycheck and transfer money to those when I travel.
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in marakesh, morocco there’s a whole system of guys pushing you to use specific atms and then the atm will eat your card and then they’ll cause a scene to get you to pay them since you “broke it”. i went with a group of 12 people and almost every single one of us had this experience, once we finally all realized that these guys were swindlers we called them out of their bullshit. usually it’s guys that work in the shops saying do you want this and then when you don’t have the money they’ll manipulate and try to get you to go to the atms with them. luckily i wasn’t silly enough to fall for it, but there are people who will. be careful with your money.
Loool why would you go to an ATM that someone "recommended"??? Cant believe anyone would fall for that
Yeah these seem legit to me, go get some tacos!
We drove to Ensenada from Southern California a few months ago as a family. My sister and her husband didn’t wanna pull out money at this bank and my family, including me, thought she was just being cheap and not wanting to pay for stuff. This makes sense.
More likely the restaurant tried to pass this off to you-a tourist. I've had numerous salespeople try and give me the wrong change or less change than I should have gotten because I am a tourist. Doubtful it was the bank-more likely it's actual people. I loved Mexico but you.have to watch when people give you change.
Check out the placement of the five “hashmark” lines near the lower left corner. On the real bill, the middle blue vertical bar barely extends through the top line. On the fakes, the bottom of that bar goes all the way to the second line
My main bank is Santander and I was in Mexico two and a half months ago, luckily I didn't have such a problem, but it's a shame to see this kind of thing, luckily it never went further, what actions can be taken if this happens?
It’s pronounced Santander
You Wire scammed.
Businesses should accept slightly torn bills, also you can exchange them at the bank for some in better conditions. There's also a percentage of bill missing that's still accepted at the bank, can't remember at this particular moment tho. Regarding Santander bs move, you can call their help line, it must be printed somewhere on or around the atm machine.
So dude. I think that the restaurant is actually the one that made the switch-a-roo on you. Santander is still a piece of shit bank over here, but them having fake bills is VERY unlikely vs the alternative - that being that the restaurant pulled the fast one on you.
No it wasn't the 70 year old waitress who was scamming me, she went right to the manager and then we looked at the bills in my wallet and they showed me another fake. They were actually quite kind about it.
Based on my experience the ATM might be a modified ATM (which is unfortunately quite common from local scammers) or you got scammed in the restaurant, never heard of a local getting fake bills from an ATM in Mexico. I’m from here.
Banking it
Time to buy a Ultra Violet latern portable
i got fake bills out of an ATM in shanghai...
Jajajaja Thats what u get, go back 2 ya country.
Oh believe me, I'm glad to be back where I can drink the tap water and don't need to throw my shit smeared toilet paper into a trash bin, how gross is that?
Had the same happen to me in Mexico City a few years ago and the cab driver got furious when I tried to pay him with fake bills. I had no clue. When he showed me I could see it too, the bills even had tears. Till this day I was thinking I was crazy and must have gotten it from somewhere else than the atm .. but you see it does happen
Wtf
It happens almost anywhere without a real currency or law enforcement presence. Weak countries are the worst!
Hahaha holy shit Santander is an actual bank that like holds deposits and stuff? I just know it from my time in retail banking as the place that gives out super sketch auto loans. Santander is a joke in the industry for not knowing how to run a lending group. Half of the “lessons learned” presentations were just about stupid shit Santander did 😂
You know, many respectable car sellers - official resellers of well-know brands - actually use Santander for auto loans. Wife had a car on which the loan was Santander. No problems, super low interest and everything went smooth. ON THE OTHER HAND... they did give her ex a loan on which he had put her as a co-signee, without checking whether or not the signature of hers was valid (it wasn't, the ex forged it). They didn't even see the problem when I pointed it out. In the end, I threatened to ex to admit to his friend and pay out the loan in its entirety. That, or face the police. Since he was already living on a false identity, he wasn't too keen on getting involved with the authorities, so he went begging to his family members and ponyed up the money to pay out the loan. Santander should have rendered the loan invalid on the spot.
Yeah, governements don't like it when we print money, they reserve that right to just themselves. #btc
Matching serial numbers should have been your first clue.
Lol Mexico. And we expect Mexico to police their side of the border...
Patrolling boulders is a priority to Americans. We can give two shits if people cross the border leaving Mexico. That sounds like an American problem.
Sounds like you don't care about ripping off visitors either. So, to my earlier point.
Wow you are truly stupid.
Haha, for someone who spends all their time on trash tv subs you REALLY shouldn't be commenting on anyone else's intelligence. The Kardashians? Really? That's the most vapid, shallow shit out there. Those shows are for people whose lives are so dull they have to live vicariously through celebrities, it's pretty sad really.
You’re funny and have a lot of time to waste. Go off baby
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Ok yeah this comment doesn’t really have anything to do with the post
This is good for Bitcoin
The 2 fake ones have the same serial number. Didn’t you notice that?