Cases of money counterfeiting are increasing, the expert shows how to spot fraud

Massive increase of fake money in the Kosovo market. This is how experts of the Forensic Agency describe the presence of counterfeit coins and banknotes in the country.

Their value, they say, is increasing compared to last year - currently tens of thousands of euros.

From January to September 2023, over 35,000 counterfeit coins and 2,209 counterfeit banknotes were examined in the Forensic Agency's laboratory.

In the same period last year, forensic experts examined 9,309 counterfeit coins and 645 banknotes.

The most counterfeited, according to them, are 2 euro coins and 50 euro banknotes.

Feriz Selimaj, an expert at the Kosovo Agency for Forensics, tells Radio Free Europe that the quality of forgeries varies from the weakest to very good.

"For us as experts, it is not difficult to identify [fake money]. It's easy. In the laboratory we have advanced equipment and they are easily identified, but for a citizen it is not easy to distinguish the original from the fake", says Selimaj.

Kosovo is not part of the Eurozone, but uses the euro. Among the other countries in the region, Montenegro is doing the same.

In July of this year, REL reported at least two cases of confiscation of thousands of counterfeit euros in Kosovo, coming from North Macedonia and Turkey.

For the reporting at that time, REL also spoke with several profiles on the TikTok application, who confirmed that they can bring fake money to Kosovo, in whatever amount is required, but did not order to avoid committing a criminal offense.

The Kosovo Police, at the time, did not respond to REL's question whether they investigated such profiles or the people who claim to manage them./REL