Massachusetts Police Send Warning of ‘Motion Picture Use Only’ $100 Bills

(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Police in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, are warning people to be on the lookout for fake $100 bills.

Officials shared a picture on Facebook, showing the bill, which says “MOTION PICTURE USE ONLY” on the front and back.

They said, “There are counterfeit hundred dollar bills that are being circulated through the Fitchburg area right now. Please take note of the upper right hand corner of the bill & as well as the back of the bill (states For Motion Picture Use Only).”

“People have been trying to make purchases with these bills and pass them off as real money at stores,” the department also said on Facebook in response to a comment. “As soon as you present them as real currency, it then becomes a criminal offense.”

In El Paso, Texas, a similar warning was recently sent out to locals by police.

A flyer from Homeland Security that El Paso police have put out to warn people about movie money being used in the city. (El Paso Police)

The bills, in $20 and $50 denominations, look like the real thing with serial numbers and banknote identifiers, except that they have “FOR MOTION PICTURE USE ONLY” written at the top, police say.

They have put out fliers with an example of a $100 bill.

Another way to identify the movie set money is to hold the bill up to the light. If there is no Franklin watermark and no embedded security thread on it, it’s a fake.

“The style of the money has been around for a few years, but we haven’t seen a whole lot of it here in El Paso,” Darrel Petry, public information officer for the El Paso police told KFOX14. “As of lately, we’ve had several cases where this type of money has turned up.”

NTD reporter Holly Kellum contributed to this report.

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