Saturday morning I received a counterfeit penny at Starbucks. I know for certain I received the counterfeit penny at Starbucks because I only visited three stores that morning: two were Starbucks where I paid cash and a third which I charged for my items. I discovered the penny when I returned home from that morning’s tasks so my level of certainty is extremely high. (I also do not carry change in my pockets at the beginning of the day because I store my change at the end of every day.)
It amazes me that almost every time a retail outlet receives foreign or counterfeit currency they try to pass it back to the consumer. I’ve received numerous Canadian pennies over the years. One time I even received a photocopied dollar bill as change (in 2000) when I ate at a client site’s cafeteria for lunch.
Does anyone know if this is illegal? It certainly is illegal for customers to try to pay with counterfeit currency. What about corporations trying to return it? Who should accept the loss?
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