An employee sorts 50,000 won notes at Hana Bank’s counterfeit response center in Jung District, central Seoul, on Feb. 24. Notes of 50,000 won made up 97.7 percent of the counterfeits the Bank of Korea received last year.NEWS1
Counterfeit banknotes handed to the Bank of Korea (BOK) by investigators jumped about 20-fold last year, and fake bills are still being openly advertised for sale on social media.
The central bank took in 9,716 counterfeit or altered notes from investigative agencies last year, up from 483 in 2024, according to Bank of Korea data obtained Monday by Rep. Ahn Sang-hoon of the People Power Party, who sits on the National Assembly’s finance and economy committee.
Their combined face value came to 476.6 million won ($356,104), more than 100 times the 4.63 million won recorded in 2024.
The number of notes fell from 662 in 2021 to 68 in 2022 and 98 in 2023 before beginning to climb again in 2024. Last year, 50,000 won notes accounted for 9,488 of them, or 97.7 percent.
The jump in 50,000 won notes appears to stem from a single large counterfeiting case. In September 2024, a group in Asan, South Chungcheong, used a color printer to make 9,188 fake 50,000 won notes with a combined face value of 459.4 million won and tried to exchange them for virtual assets.
The BOK’s figures count notes handed over by investigators, however, and do not show how many counterfeits circulated in a given year.
An employee sorts 50,000 won notes at Hana Bank’s counterfeit response center in Jung District, central Seoul, on Feb. 24. Notes of 50,000 won made up 97.7 percent of the counterfeits the Bank of Korea received last year.NEWS1
Ahn’s office monitored social media from Tuesday to Thursday last week and found more than 10 posts selling counterfeit bills, with taglines such as “biggest stock of fake notes” and “open 24 hours.” Contacting the Telegram and KakaoTalk accounts listed in the posts would put a buyer in touch with a seller and allow an attempt to buy counterfeits, the office said.
Ahn criticized the central bank for doing little more than teaching people how to spot fakes. The BOK spent about 30 million won last year overhauling its counterfeit banknote information app, but the update only added a large-text option and an FAQ menu, according to Ahn. About 100 million won has gone into the app since it was developed, and it costs several million won a year to maintain.
“The response to counterfeiting should rise to match the country’s higher standing,” Ahn said. “As the issuer of the currency, the BOK must put a proper response system in place to cut off the circulation of counterfeits at the source.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
