West Vancouver Police and the Bank of Canada are launching a joint education and prevention campaign to help local merchants protect their businesses from counterfeit currency offences.

Bank of Canada representatives and police will be going door to door providing merchants with information packages and demonstrations of the Bank of Canada “T-I-L-L” method for confirming a bill is genuine Canadian currency.

The simple, four step method allows anyone to check for security features of genuine currency within a matter of seconds.

The Bank of Canada, retailers, Police and Crown Counsel are serious about putting an end to counterfeiting and work together on an ongoing basis to identify and apprehend offenders.

An alert merchant recognizing a counterfeit note played a key role in the arrest of two suspects in West Vancouver in March for Possession and Uttering of Counterfeit Currency. Police and the Bank of Canada want to make prevention information available to as many people as possible.

Full information on counterfeit prevention is available on the Bank of Canada Website

Prevention and education have played a key role in steadily reducing the annual cost of counterfeiting to Canadians since 2004. In 2004, approximately 13 million dollars in counterfeit currency was seized across Canada. By 2009, that number was reduced to just over 3.4 million dollars.

The door to door awareness campaign is being undertaken as part of the WVPD Business Watch program.