GALLIPOLIS - Gallipolis City Police and the Gallia County Sheriff's Office are investigating the source of a string of counterfeit bills that have turned up at businesses throughout the county.

On seven different occasions since Oct. 27, people have tried passing one or more fake bills at local food establishments, a bar, convenience store and a department store, authorities said.

“It's kind of just a new thing that's come to the area,” said City Police Lt. Keith Elliott. “It's not just a Gallipolis problem.”

The recent wave of counterfeit bills is the first in at least a year, Elliott said.

Elliott said that Mason County, W.Va., has also had problems with counterfeit bills.

The GPD is currently working with the Gallia County Sheriff's Office, the Mason County Sheriff's Office, the Point Pleasant Police Department and the U.S. Secret Service, which primarily handles counterfeit cases nationwide.

Elliott said city police has “several good leads we're following up on, but there is still a problem out there.”

At least one case from the recent activities is close to being charged, Elliott said.

“If we get the case solved, we are going to be looking to get federal charges instead of local,” he said.

Some people who are actually using the bills may not be those who are creating them.

“You have to weed out who was actually misleading and who was the innocent victim,” Elliott said.

Cashiers at many of the stores in the county use the counterfeit detection pens and have been for some time. The bills, when marked, display a certain color showing authenticity.

On Oct. 27, a person attempted to pass a fake $10 bill at Courtside Bar and Grill.

On Oct. 28, a counterfeit $20 bill did not make it passed the register at the downtown Gallipolis Family Dollar.

The occurrences rested for nearly three weeks when on Nov. 16 at Robbie's BP, a man tried to exchange two $20 bills and one $10 bill for one $50 bill. According to the report, the cashier would not exchange them because the bills looked suspicious. The man reportedly left driving a black Chevy Camaro.

In the same day, a male tried to pass a fake $20 bill at Little Caesar's. When the bill was rejected, the man left also driving a black Chevy Camaro, according to the police report.

On Nov. 17, a person tried paying with a counterfeit $20 bill and was declined at Courtside Bar and Grill. The person tried paying with three more different $20 bills. Each was a fake, the report said.

On Nov. 18, a fake $20 bill was caught at the register of McDonald's Restaurant.

On Friday, employees at the Foodland in Bidwell locked a woman in the store after she attempted to pay with five fake $20 bills, sheriff's Capt. John Perry said.

“The quality (of the fake bills) is poor in some cases,” Perry said. “They (cashiers) need to really pay attention to what they're taking. Be careful because it is normally during busy periods that suspects will try to pass these bills.”

On some of the recently confiscated fake $20 bills, the colors are not as bright, the outer margins have been found to be off, the paper is a little more slick and worn and the 󈬄” mark on the lower right of the bill does not turn from a metallic gold to green as it does on the new bills.

The biggest difference is that the counterfeit bills do not have the standard security thread.

New bills should possess color shifting ink, a watermark, security thread and serial numbers as a unique combination of 11 numbers and letters appearing twice on the face of the note.