COUNTERFEIT FEARS ADD PRESSURE TO CANADA'S SHIFT TOWARD DIGITAL PAYMENTS

As concerns about counterfeit bills persist, Calgarians who rely on cash worry about a changing payment landscape.

From restaurant owners losing money on $100 “prank” bills to seniors fearing digital fraud, the struggle over the future of paper currency is intensifying.

Luigi Romano stood at the checkout counter at the 7-Eleven at 5003 Centre St. N., watching the store’s cash management safe spit back his money. The 70-year-old Calgarian still uses cash for about 50 per cent of his purchases, but he increasingly finds himself at odds with the technology designed to process it.

The store’s policy requires employees to use a Tidel series 4 cash management safe, intended to keep cash off the counter and secure from theft. The safe often fails to recognize legitimate tender, repeatedly spitting back Romano’s bills.

“You would put them in and the machine would reject. You put it in again, the machine would reject, so for you it’s a hassle,” Romano says.

Romano understands that while the intent is to prevent theft, the malfunctioning technology creates a new vulnerability: “It causes the problem, because now you have the cash and people might steal it, so obviously that does not work very well.”

Businesses and consumers are grappling with counterfeit currency and a steady shift toward digital-only transactions.

While Bank of Canada representatives maintain that bank note confidence remains “high and stable,” a rise in sophisticated fakes is driving many merchants to scrutinize every bill or refuse cash entirely.

For business owners such as Naeem Mazhar, who has operated a Circle K convenience store for 19 years, the threat of counterfeit money is constant. He says his store encounters fraudulent bills “all the time,” ranging from $20 to $100 denominations.

“Actually, we stop touching the $100 bills. That’s why we’re losing a lot of customers and definitely impacting our sales, as well,” Mazhar says.

He describes the tension of operating during peak hours when the pressure to move quickly clashes with the need for security. “Sometimes we don’t have time to even check the bills, and people take chances to bring the fake bills.”

Robin Panchiwala, who bought the Braeside location of Asian restaurant WokBox in 2024, has faced similar challenges with fraudulent currency. He says teenagers often use fake bills as a “prank,” placing orders they never intend to pick up. This hurts the business by wasting food.

“They come to our store, they order food, they say we are coming back, they give us fake bills and they leave it. They don’t come to collect their food or they don’t even tell us that it’s fake money,” Panchiwala says.

Even when staff are vigilant, some counterfeits are such high quality that they pass initial inspection. He recalls an incident when a bill looked entirely real to his staff, but failed at the bank.

“The teller at the bank noticed that this is a fake bill,” Panchiwala says. “I said, ‘it’s not possible because my employees check it,’ but still it gets into our system. It looked real.”

The Calgary Police Service confirms that while counterfeit reports tend to occur in cycles, averaging one to three reports per week, the actual volume of the complaints is likely higher as businesses often hang onto multiple fake notes before reporting them.

As cash use increased post-pandemic, counterfeit currency has also “risen steadily,” though it remains below pre-COVID-19 numbers, according to police.

The $100 Canadian bill is the most commonly counterfeited denomination, followed closely by $50 bills, they said. Beyond retail, they say counterfeit currency is “most commonly encountered in transactions arranged through social media platforms such as online marketplaces.”

The Bank of Canada is working to stay ahead of counterfeiters by developing new notes with enhanced security features, including a new vertical $20 scheduled for 2027.

In the meantime, the bank urges users to “feel, look, tilt and flip” to verify bills. This involves checking security features such as metallic symbols and the transparent window.

For consumers such as Vivek Ghevariya, the mere suspicion of a fake bill can lead to public humiliation. He says he hosted his birthday party at a restaurant where his $100 bill was rejected.

“My friend paid the bill, and that’s the embarrassing situation for me,” Ghevariya says.

Ghevariya remains a firm cash user because of “bad experiences” with digital payments, including being overcharged and waiting seven days for a refund.

“When I take money from the bank or from anyone, I scratch that plastic and confirm that it should be original,” Ghevariya says.

Melissa Martin, associate director of entrepreneurship and innovation at SAIT and former CEO of Wean Green Inc., says businesses are constantly weighing the risks of theft and the rising fees for digital payments against the cost of doing business.

“While the individual fees may seem small, they add up quickly when applied to every transaction,” Martin says. She believes that for businesses with thin profit margins, these fees are a significant factor in deciding whether to go cashless.

“Cash creates risks related to theft, employee error and loss. Businesses must think about secure storage, transport to the bank and access controls within the organization,” Martin says.

She recommends that new businesses accept a combination of methods. “Ideally, businesses can find ways to balance efficiency with inclusivity.”

Alexandre Plourde, a lawyer and analyst at Option Consommateurs, says the “slow disappearance of cash” is a major issue for vulnerable populations. He says that statistics show people with low income, seniors and those who are “unbanked” or “underbanked” depend more on cash for daily transactions.

Plourde and Option Consommateurs are advocating for legislative changes in Canada to require merchants to accept cash, similar to laws in jurisdictions such as New Jersey. He also points to a “systemic risk” of relying solely on digital infrastructure.

“If there’s a big breakdown, if there’s no electricity, for instance, it’s going to be a huge economic problem for consumers to make transactions,” Plourde says.

Mel Lefebvre, communications manager at the Unison Kerby Centre, sees the digital divide daily in Calgary’s older population. She says many seniors are afraid of their information being stolen by fraudulent card readers.

“Some of them prefer using cash. She’s like, you can’t scam me with cash,” Lefebvre says, referring to an elderly relative who finds online banking intimidating. She notes that cash provides a “visual cue” that helps seniors budget, because “you can only spend what’s in front of you.”

The pressure to use digital payments is growing. Corinne Pohlmann, executive vice-president of advocacy at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), says many small businesses are choosing “credit only” for ease of tracking and because of customer demand.

“For a lot of businesses, payments is a business decision,” Pohlmann says. She notes that small businesses are often targets for fraud because they “don’t have the same levels of protection as consumers do.” While credit card transactions can be “very expensive as a merchant,” they eliminate the worry of counterfeits and the “invisible fees” of counting and transporting physical money.

Employees at convenience stores feel the tension every shift. Gagan Deep Kaur, an assistant manager at Circle K on Memorial Drive N.E., remembers her first mistake as a new hire — exchanging four real $5 bills for a fake $20 bill.

“My manager was kind, so he forgave me. But after that day, I became careful with handling cash,” Kaur says.

Her store now avoids cash transactions during evening and night shifts to minimize risk, a policy that often leads to conflict.

“Some people understand . . . but some really get mad; some even create a scene.”

Karanveer Singh, an assistant manager at 7-Eleven, says he deals with high cash volumes for items such as cigarettes and lottery tickets. He says the use of fake bills to buy these items is a “serious issue” that makes his job harder.

“There is no personal thing when we refuse a bill; it’s just a store process,” Singh says. “Some customers think we purposely refuse the bill, but why do we do that?”

In the end, he believes “normal people suffer equally as businesses do” when counterfeiters circulate fake money.

Despite the growing friction and the push toward a digital future, the Bank of Canada reports that 80 per cent of Canadians have no plans to go cashless, and 96 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses continue to accept it.

Sakshi Rohal, Kamalveer Singh and Jaspreet X. Gill are in their final semester of SAIT’s journalism program. Through a partnership program with SAIT, Postmedia is publishing these students’ final SAIT projects.

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2026-08-04T14:04:49Z