FAKE CURRENCY TRADE HAS A NEW STOREFRONT

An activity once restricted to smuggling routes is now thriving on social media

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A person who goes by the name Rihan Rathod posts a video on his public Facebook profile, early morning in the second week of August. In the video, he displays his phone number, and stacks of ₹500 notes stored in what looks like an aluminium trunk, the kind found in many Indian homes for storing clothes or grain. Two more containers, brimming with ₹100 and 200 notes, can be seen next to it.

Rathod picks up a stack of 500 notes and feeds it into a cash counting machine.

It whirs and flashes a number-96. He fans through the bundle to point out the serial numbers, then holds one note up to the light, the textbook way to check authenticity.

In another video, posted on Instagram, in the last week of August, a woman channels the energy of a roadside hawker. She calls attention to two trunks filled with ₹500 and ₹100 notes, holds a bundle of them like a stack of playing cards and points out details as if selling fresh produce. These notes will pass ATMs and counting machines, she claims. She then proceeds to hold a note under the light of her phone's torch, highlights the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) strip and flicks through the stack a couple of times, saying that it's all "AI quality." Watching these videos, it's easy to forget that this isn't a legitimate street stall. It is counterfeit currency being peddled like a consumer product.

Rathod posts these videos and asks his Facebook followers to "like, share and subscribe". Some of his posts are sponsored.

Mint reached out to the sellers. We texted them on numbers mentioned in the videos for a response. One of the sellers responded with images of 500 notes on being contacted, but stopped communicating when we shared a set of questions.