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A friend of mine drew about 2, 000 pesos out of an ATM at Citibank on Callao and found 3 fake 50 peso bills, all of them easy to recognize color copies. He told the bank immediately but of course they wouldn't accept the claim, in fact he was treated as if he had switched the real bills to fake ones after pulling the money out from the ATM. Argentina is one the very few countries if not the only one where you can get fake bills from banks.
Fucking Banco Francias in Colegiales, to quote the sage,"Kocksukers"
[QUOTE=SnakeOilSales;429798]If I had to convert all my assets into cash and bury them for 20 years I would be using the 1000 CHF notes.[/QUOTE]If I had to convert all my assets into cash and bury them for 20 years I'd need change from a 1000 CHF note!
Yep, I need to update. Did not know the CHF was worth more than the dollar. Looks like it's been almost two years that's been the case.
If you travel and unfamiliar with the local currency, you might eventually find yourself in possession of counterfeit currency. Here's an interesting article from the New York Times, but re-posted and linked to the Seattle Times (unlike the NYT, no pay-per-view registration needed). The article reminded me of my first trip to Argentina about 15 years ago when I was given counterfeit pesos by a cab driver. I complained to everyone about being given the counterfeit money, but all I got was the 'you're a dumb-ass' look.
[url]http://seattletimes.com/html/travel/2019793428_fakemoney30xml.html[/url]
According to the article, the London-based global foreign exchange company Travelex says that the counterfeit currencies it sees most often are the euro, British pound, Mexican peso, Argentine peso, Peruvian sol and Chinese yuan. Since everything else in China is counterfeited, I shouldn't have been surprised about the Chinese yuan being widely counterfeited but I was. I was also surprised that the US dollar wasn't high on the list.
[QUOTE=Yujin; 429953]If you travel and unfamiliar with the local currency, you might eventually find yourself in possession of counterfeit currency. Here's an interesting article from the New York Times, but re-posted and linked to the Seattle Times (unlike the NYT, no pay-per-view registration needed). The article reminded me of my first trip to Argentina about 15 years ago when I was given counterfeit pesos by a cab driver. I complained to everyone about being given the counterfeit money, but all I got was the 'you're a dumb-ass' look.
[url]http://seattletimes.com/html/travel/2019793428_fakemoney30xml.html[/url]
According to the article, the London-based global foreign exchange company Travelex says that the counterfeit currencies it sees most often are the euro, British pound, Mexican peso, Argentine peso, Peruvian sol and Chinese yuan. Since everything else in China is counterfeited, I shouldn't have been surprised about the Chinese yuan being widely counterfeited but I was. I was also surprised that the US dollar wasn't high on the list.[/QUOTE]Hopefully the new 100 Peso Evita note should help, if has better security features. The hardest to counterfiet is the Australian Dollar ans now CAD, with the plastic polymer see thru notes, very cool stuff.
That's a good point and the USD used to be a lot easier to counterfeit and would have been higher up on the list say 10 years ago. Because 60% of USD circulates outside the country, we only sort of 40% gave a shit so the counterfeiting problem got pretty bad before we decided to deal with it. That was kind of selfish but of course the new paper and so forth is costly. We did have an opportunity at the same time to go to a longer lived and cheaper paper but we decided controlling the manufacturers more closely was more important, which is probably true. By the way, historically, when counterfeiting goes up revolutions can follow. Whether you are a Dem or a Rep or a Lib or a Com you want trustworthy money that everyone will accept or it will get real ugly. Don't forget that in 2001/2002 individual Argie provinces issued their own bullshit currencies such as the "Patacón" to feign solvency as far as payroll and so forth was concerned. If I went down there to monger right now I would bring $9999 US, fill out no forms, and party til the money ran out. I would not be relying on ATMs at this point, as a visitor.
[QUOTE=Dickhead;429968]That's a good point and the USD used to be a lot easier to counterfeit and would have been higher up on the list say 10 years ago. Because 60% of USD circulates outside the country, we only sort of 40% gave a shit so the counterfeiting problem got pretty bad before we decided to deal with it. That was kind of selfish but of course the new paper and so forth is costly. We did have an opportunity at the same time to go to a longer lived and cheaper paper but we decided controlling the manufacturers more closely was more important, which is probably true. By the way, historically, when counterfeiting goes up revolutions can follow. Whether you are a Dem or a Rep or a Lib or a Com you want trustworthy money that everyone will accept or it will get real ugly. Don't forget that in 2001/2002 individual Argie provinces issued their own bullshit currencies such as the "Patacón" to feign solvency as far as payroll and so forth was concerned. If I went down there to monger right now I would bring $9999 US, fill out no forms, and party til the money ran out. I would not be relying on ATMs at this point, as a visitor.[/QUOTE]I think the new USD 100 is getting ready to come out next year, more security features, but plastic polymer seems like the way to go, money lasts 2x longer too.
[QUOTE=Yujin; 429953]If you travel and unfamiliar with the local currency, you might eventually find yourself in possession of counterfeit currency. Here's an interesting article from the New York Times, but re-posted and linked to the Seattle Times (unlike the NYT, no pay-per-view registration needed). The article reminded me of my first trip to Argentina about 15 years ago when I was given counterfeit pesos by a cab driver. I complained to everyone about being given the counterfeit money, but all I got was the 'you're a dumb-ass' look.
[url]http://seattletimes.com/html/travel/2019793428_fakemoney30xml.html[/url]
According to the article, the London-based global foreign exchange company Travelex says that the counterfeit currencies it sees most often are the euro, British pound, Mexican peso, Argentine peso, Peruvian sol and Chinese yuan. Since everything else in China is counterfeited, I shouldn't have been surprised about the Chinese yuan being widely counterfeited but I was. I was also surprised that the US dollar wasn't high on the list.[/QUOTE]After hearing so many reports of sleazebag black and yellow cab drivers passing fakes, running double speed meters, driving beat up cabs with bald tires, shot suspensions, and worst of all, driving like morons, often with their headlights off during nighttime. Beware, many black and yellow cabs do not have headrests, putting you at risk for whiplash. Granted, there are many good drivers and cabs out there too, yes, but the above problems inspired me to provide something better, a private, premium car service, here in Buenos Aires. At SilverStar, we do the opposite when it comes to fake money, we actually show you specimen fakes, so you know what you are up against in the real world and hopefully avoid getting scammed down the road. We speak English, drive safe, have awesome, well maintained cars, with airbags and A / C, plus we are very serious about punctuality. If you are a premium traveler who wants the best value in a fully licnesed and insured premium car service, please consider us, we can help you avoid getting scammed with fake bills, etc.
[url]www.silverstarcar.com[/url]
Fully Licensed and Insured (Unlike many other low end car services here)
Serving Buenos Aires Premium Travelers Since 2009
[QUOTE=Dickhead; 429968]That's a good point and the USD used to be a lot easier to counterfeit and would have been higher up on the list say 10 years ago.
Because 60% of USD circulates outside the country,
So, the USA does have an export economy then, exports of pretty cool looking green pieces of paper with value more than the paper itself, that's a pretty cool gig.
Pretty cool stuff.
[QUOTE=Silver Star; 429988]After hearing so many reports of sleazebag black and yellow cab drivers passing fakes, running double speed meters, driving beat up cabs with bald tires, shot suspensions, and worst of all, driving like morons, often with their headlights off during nighttime. Beware, many black and yellow cabs do not have headrests, putting you at risk for whiplash. Granted, there are many good drivers and cabs out there too, yes, but the above problems inspired me to provide something better, a private, premium car service, here in Buenos Aires. At SilverStar, we do the opposite when it comes to fake money, we actually show you specimen fakes, so you know what you are up against in the real world and hopefully avoid getting scammed down the road. We speak English, drive safe, have awesome, well maintained cars, with airbags and A / C, plus we are very serious about punctuality. If you are a premium traveler who wants the best value in a fully licnesed and insured premium car service, please consider us, we can help you avoid getting scammed with fake bills, etc.
[url]www.silverstarcar.com[/url]
What
Fully Licensed and Insured (Unlike many other low end car services here)
Serving Buenos Aires Premium Travelers Since 2009[/QUOTE]What does this post have to do with exchanging currency? Are you now spamming the board Fred? Please stop! Stay on your thread unless you want to address the subject being discussed. You wonder why most don't use your overpriced services. Back to your thread taxi chulo! Toymann
[QUOTE=Toymann;430003]What does this post have to do with exchanging currency? Are you now spamming the board Fred? Please stop! Stay on your thread unless you want to address the subject being discussed. You wonder why most don't use your overpriced services. Back to your thread taxi chulo! Toymann[/QUOTE]He was responding to people that have been passed fake bills from tacheros. It's a reach but daddy thinks he made it.
[QUOTE=Daddy Rulz;430032]He was responding to people that have been passed fake bills from tacheros. It's a reach but daddy thinks he made it.[/QUOTE]Just sounds like the same old pitch to me daddy. Airbags, bad divers, yada, yada. With taxi rip off info that ha been mentioned over and over on the forum for years now. Nothing new but the airbags! LOL. Toymann
[QUOTE=Toymann;430003]What does this post have to do with exchanging currency? Are you now spamming the board Fred? Please stop! Stay on your thread unless you want to address the subject being discussed. You wonder why most don't use your overpriced services. Back to your thread taxi chulo! Toymann[/QUOTE]Couldn't agree more, Toymann. You wrote exactly what I thought.
I want to add that I have used taxis for 5 yrs in BA and in fact I mostly use taxis for my transportation. And no radio taxi. I just hail them on the road. I have absolutely no incident to report. I find the drivers extremely polite and helpful. After having used taxis over a 100 world cities, I find BA taxis amongst the better ones I have used.
I have noticed over the years that Fred has always tried to create fear mongering amongst readers here and at BA expats about using local taxis in order to jack up his market. I absolutely dislike this kind of "pimping".
I don't really blame guys like Fred and Ramiro who have to find and live off pesos. When I was down there I had dollars flowing in magically. Sometimes I attempted to earn some pesos to augment the dollars, so I can see how hard it is to make a living down there. Fred has it even tougher because he has a high-end product and those don't do well in collapsing economies. So he has to annoy a hundred posters to maybe successfully capture one newbie.