South Bay : UN-FUNNY MONEY
The Redondo Beach police recently issued a warning to South Bay merchants to be wary of travelers checks that carry the Bank of America Visa logo after several checks that cashed in the area were deemed bogus.
About 10 $100 checks have been passed by a counterfeit ring made up of Vietnamese nationals, according to Detective Peter Grimm. He said about seven people have been arrested over the last few months for passing bad checks. Last week Quan Cao and Hung Dan Nguyen, both 24-year-olds from Gardena, were arrested at Thrifty’s Drug on Aviation Boulevard in Redondo Beach when a cashier noticed that their check looked suspicious.
Grimm said the counterfeiters spend about $20 in the stores and collect nearly $80 in change. The checks all have similar serial numbers and have been passed at stores in Manhattan Beach, Gardena and Hermosa Beach.
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