Fake money is real problem for small businesses

For many small businesses, fake currency is causing real headaches.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the Secret Service, which is tasked with eliminating counterfeit currency, pulled more than $182 million in fraudulent currency in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009. The amount represents more than twice the amount they removed in the same period last year.

Many small business owners have seen tell-tale signs of customers who try to pass off the fake currency. According to Debbie King, whose family owns Commercial Tire Company in California, they usually give themselves away.

"They start pacing around, and they start sweating because we are holding things up," King said in an interview with the news provider.

King isn't the only one catching on to the schemes.

Last month, law enforcement officers in San Diego busted an organized counterfeiting consortium. The news source reports that authorities discovered an operation that passed more than $100,000 in counterfeit $100 bills.

According to the Survival Guide for Small Business website, there are many ways small business owners can combat the use of fake bills.

One of the first ways they suggest is to hold the bill up to the light and verify that there is a holograph of a face, which should match the face on the bill. There is also a thin vertical strip that spells out how much the currency is worth.