PHUKET — Police from Wichit Police Station in Phuket have seized US dollar banknotes for examination and are coordinating with US Embassy officials in Thailand, specifically the US Secret Service, to verify the authenticity of currency that a Russian female tourist attempted to exchange for Thai baht.
The case began when Ms. Saowalak, a currency exchange employee in Moo 3, Wichit Sub-district, Muang District, reported suspicious US dollar bills on March 24. The bills were presented by a 53-year-old Russian woman identified as Ruspashkova, who wanted to exchange them for Thai currency.
The notes included thirty-four $50 bills from the 2017 series, one $50 bill from the 2009 series, and three $50 bills from the 2013 series.
According to Ms. Saowalak, the Russian tourist had previously exchanged six $50 bills on March 22, receiving approximately 9,750 baht. After closing her shop, Ms. Saowalak attempted to exchange these dollars at another currency exchange point, but staff there identified them as counterfeits and refused the transaction. This prompted her to alert police to investigate.
Wichit police officers subsequently seized the dollar bills the Russian woman had brought for exchange and confiscated additional dollar notes from Miss Ruspashkova’s accommodation.
Initial testing using automatic money counting machines produced inconsistent results, with some bills passing through the machine while others were rejected, making it impossible to confirm which notes were genuine or counterfeit.
After repeated testing with similar results, bank staff indicated they could not provide authentication certificates and noted that verification would require sending the bills to the bank’s headquarters.
Additionally, bank officials mentioned they no longer accept 2017 series US dollar bills due to frequent problems with this series. Police have retained all the banknotes for further investigation.
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