A sudden thunderstorm on Monday drove a crowd from the Ocean City Boardwalk into the Surf Mall, and a lot of money traded hands in the brief surge of shopping. Not all of it was real money.

Wes Kazmarck, Surf Mall owner and Boardwalk Merchants Association president, said other Boardwalk business owners had warned him that fake bills were going around, and one of the $10 bills collected that day "looked a little sketchy."

A closer inspection revealed a couple of the telltale signs of counterfeit money: absence of a watermark (held up to a light, a real $10 bill shows a second, faint image of Alexander Hamilton to match the main one); a difference in paper quality; and a less-glossy finish on certain parts of the bill. But at a quick glance, the counterfeit bill looks identical to a real one.

"These things are good," Kazmarck said. "That's a pretty good bill for a fake."

He said the quality of the counterfeit money is all the more scary because they're being passed in small denominations: $10 and $20 bills. He said it's more common for counterfeiters to make and merchants to scrutinize $50 or $100 bills.

"I'm hoping they just dropped these on us and got out of town," Kazmarck said.

To read the complete article, see:Counterfeit Money Showing Up on Ocean City Boardwalk(oceancity.patch.com/articles/fake-money-making-tour-of-the
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