Fake ₹500 notes are going viral online

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 “A1 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.

According to an investigation by this publication, over 18,000 Meta ads in India matched the keyword “second currency,” a euphemism for counterfeit notes, over the past 12 months. Many of these ran openly as paid campaigns, often accompanied with WhatsApp numbers for direct purchase.

Such campaigns have mushroomed on other platforms as well.

Bengaluru-based cybersecurity firm CloudSEK has tracked thousands of such posts over the past year. XVigil, its external threat vigilance platform, flagged over 4,500 posts promoting counterfeit currency, linked to more than 750 accounts/pages and 410 unique phone numbers, between December 2024 and June 2025. A majority of these were found on YouTube Shorts (60%), followed by YouTube (22%), Facebook (12%) and Instagram (6%).

An activity once restricted to smuggling routes or dark web forums on the internet, selling counterfeit currency has now been repackaged into something disturbingly ordinary—a social media storefront, with boosted reach and demonstrations.

The modus operandi

For decades, India’s counterfeit currency trade was synonymous with smuggling routes along the Indo-Bangladesh border or West Bengal’s Malda district. Interested buyers had to navigate shady brokers, backroom deals and the constant risk of police raids. That landscape has now shifted online. A few clicks on Facebook or Instagram can lead to sellers openly advertising “second series” or “high copy” notes.

Like any digital goods being sold online, sellers try to convey trust—through videos displaying the ‘quality’ of notes, shot in domestic settings that make the transaction feel routine.

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“It’s not the dark web anymore. It’s all over Facebook and Instagram ads,” says Sourajeet Majumder, a senior researcher at CloudSEK.

The workflow across these posts remained uniform and systematic. A post almost styled like a product listing appeared online and when a prospective buyer clicked through, it was immediately connected to a WhatsApp number.

“The moment you type a ‘hi’ to them on WhatsApp, you get a call back within seconds,” Majumder said, adding that as soon as the initial intent is established, the sellers share videos to establish trust and authenticity, and, sometimes, also a sense of urgency.

The videos Majumder describes are often similar to the ones advertised on Facebook and Instagram, including bundles of ₹500 notes unwrapped from plastic, run through counting machines, held up to the light to show watermarks.

Majumder added that sellers provide multiple collection options in busy public areas like bus stands or petrol pumps.

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“Many of them (sellers) told us to come and check the currency. Pay and take if you believe it’s what you want. That also comes with a lot of risk involved,” said Majumder.

Deliveries of counterfeit or illicit goods usually involve the risk of getting caught or trapped and people on these posts warned buyers of being beaten or robbed when they went to collect the notes.

At the same time, other posts evaluated by this writer showed engagement from buyers that reinforced the perceived legitimacy of these activities.

Comments ranged from “Don’t fall for this. They’ll call you to a location, then beat you up and take your money,” to endorsements like, “No, this person is genuine. I’ve bought from him twice. Delivery is smooth if you follow the rules.”

Majumder said that their investigation, based on GPS clustering, suggested possible syndicates. “Around four to five people were in the same area within 100 to 200 metres. That showed us this could be a potential syndicate around specific geographies,” he explained.

The Dhule connection

CloudSEK’s investigation into these networks traced clusters of social media accounts and numbers back to villages in Dhule district, highlighting the region’s role as an important node in Maharashtra’s underground note trade. Sellers in these villages are orchestrating the distribution of counterfeit notes from rural areas to urban centres.

Dhule’s role in distribution of counterfeit currency is supported by past news reports. In October 2020, the local crime branch raided a counterfeit factory in Shirpur taluka’s Kalamsare village, seizing fake ₹200 notes and equipment worth ₹48,307. More recently, in May 2025, 24 individuals were booked for circulating fake currency and other illicit items, while two suspects were arrested in Dhule city with counterfeit ₹500 notes worth tens of thousands of rupees.

“We have arrested four-five people involved in selling counterfeit currency in Shirpur taluka of Dhule but the case is currently being dealt with by the crime branch,” said Kishor Kumar Pardeshi, police inspector, Shirpur City police station. “Conclusive reasons for why this activity has increased in Dhule will only be established once the investigation by the crime branch is completed,” he added.

There are some structural factors that make Dhule conducive to counterfeit circulation. The region’s agricultural economy is centred on cotton, groundnut, maize and pulses, and generates large seasonal cash flows in local mandis where transactions remain primarily cash-based.

Also, major trade routes, including NH-3, NH-6 and NH-211 pass through Dhule district. Nearby areas such as Pune and Bhiwandi, which are located along Dhule’s transport networks, happen to be well-documented counterfeit currency hotspots.

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Veeresh Malik, an Indian author and a right to information (RTI) activist, who has long been active in the fight against counterfeit currency, said that Dhule’s location, midway between Indore and Mumbai, and near Nashik, where the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd operates a currency note press, may make it attractive to traffickers.

“Rural and agricultural markets are not the primary drivers of fake currency,” said Malik. “The real impact is felt in the larger cities, where the big money is.”

CloudSEK’s report shows that sellers exploit these public transport hubs and petrol pumps along highways as they tend to be low visibility drop points for offline handovers.

“The production of counterfeit currency in Dhule has not seen a significant rise, contrary to some reports,” said Shrikant Dhivare, superintendent of police, Dhule. “What we are seeing, however, is an increase in drop points within the Dhule area, which are being used to distribute fake notes originating from elsewhere,” he added.

CloudSEK’s report shows that sellers exploit public transport hubs and petrol pumps along highways as they tend to be low visibility drop points for offline handovers.

For businesses and consumers unaware of this trade, the consequences of these activities and transactions are almost immediate.

Sandeep Patil, a grocery store owner in Nashik, which connects to Dhule via the Mumbai-Agra highway, recounts receiving three ₹500 notes from a customer that later proved fake. “The colour felt a little different, but it was crowded when I was given the notes. So I didn’t check carefully,” he said.

Two of those notes had the same serial number, Patil later realized. He said he isn’t sure whether to take the fake notes to the bank or pass it on to someone else, which would risk incriminating him in the activity as well. As of now, he lost ₹1500, which during some weeks is his profit for two days.

Incidents like these illustrate how counterfeit currency infiltrates the informal economy often affecting those who are the least able to absorb such losses.

A counterfeit supply chain

The trade of counterfeit notes goes beyond just selling them on social media platforms. Mint’s investigation found posts advertising raw materials and digital templates alongside printed currency.

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One post offered Photoshop Document (PSD) files, watermarked paper, special inks and even tutorials to people who wanted to learn the craft of making counterfeit currency. Another post showed images and videos of notes printed on A4 and blank sheets with a shiny currency strip running through the paper. Some posts even had editing software open on screens and printing machines running in the background. These posts indicate a structured and professional setup where counterfeit currency is produced and, in some cases, taught like a skill.

“PSD file, thread, watermark ink, OVI ink green to blue, paper. Whoever wants, message me…If you want to learn the work, message me too,” the Facebook post reads (translated from Hindi).

OVI is optically variable ink—it changes colour depending on the angle of observation and can be used in currency notes as a security feature.

This supply chain mechanism has created a tiered economy of retail sellers who sell counterfeit bundles to buyers and wholesalers who supply the raw materials and knowledge to those wanting to print fake currency.

“It’s a complete supply chain,” Majumder said. “Some sell notes. Others sell the tools to make them.”

What Meta and Google say

Mint shared a detailed questionnaire with Meta and Google to understand how the platforms were tackling the problem, including questions on how ads managed to bypass its review system.

“It’s against our policies to run ads that attempt to scam or defraud our users, including the sale, purchase or trade of counterfeit currency. We don’t want this type of content on our platforms and will take action if we find policy violations in relation to this particular case,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement without specifically answering questions related to the platform’s accountability, or the robustness of its ad review system.

“We continue to invest in technology to improve our detection and enforcement against scams, provide people with on-platform warnings, and tools to protect themselves and work with law enforcement and industry peers to combat the issue,” the spokesperson further stated in the email response.

The company has long maintained that it uses artificial intelligence filters and human reviewers to prevent illegal activity on its platforms, but the flourishing counterfeit economy shows that it is easy to bypass these checks in practice.

“YouTube prohibits videos that encourage dangerous or illegal activities. Upon careful review, we have terminated the flagged channels for repeated violations of our policies on illegal or regulated goods or services,” a YouTube spokesperson told Mint.

According to YouTube, its longstanding Community Guidelines explicitly prohibits content that attempts to sell, link to, or otherwise facilitate access to regulated goods such as counterfeit documents or currency.

“Platforms have consistently shown that they won’t take responsibility for harmful content unless they are forced to. Whether it’s child safety, political disinformation, deepfakes, or scams like fake currency, their track record is very poor,” said Sharad Sharma, co-founder of iSPIRT, a software product industry think tank. “India is a large market and it has the leverage to push them. But, it needs to do so through a techno-legal approach. A purely legal route won’t work here because the system is slow and overburdened. Unless platforms are compelled, they will not build the protections required,” he added.

The enforcement gap

According to data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), there has been a surge in arrests related to fake notes, with 41 recorded so far this year compared to 21 in 2024. The Crime in India Report 2022, the latest available, noted that over 4.2 million fake notes with a face value of nearly ₹382 crore were recovered that year.

While counterfeit notes in smaller denominations have declined, ₹200 and ₹500 notes saw sharp rises of 13.9% and 37.3% respectively, as compared to the previous year, according to RBI’s Annual Report of 2024-25.

Nearly all of the social media posts that Mint evaluated for this story also showed sellers displaying the ₹200 and ₹500 notes.

CloudSEK’s Majumder said the company has shared its findings with central and state enforcement agencies, including Maharashtra Cyber and CERT-In. And while Dhule police have previously cracked down on counterfeit rackets, their efforts seem pale against the sheer scale of these posts.

There has been a surge in arrests related to fake notes, with 41 recorded so far this year compared to 21 in 2024.

To assess the scale of the problem, this reporter had filed Right to Information (RTI) requests with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to obtain data on FIRs and seizures linked to counterfeit notes.

The NCRB pointed to its last published report from 2022 and said that data on arrests for fake currency scams from 2023 to 2025 is not yet available.

The forged note vigilance division of RBI’s department of currency management clarified that the central bank monitors counterfeit notes only within the banking system and does not maintain district-level statistics.

“The printing and circulation of fake currency is strictly under the jurisdiction of law enforcement,” the division said in a response to questions sent by Mint.

While RBI regularly educates the public on how to verify genuine notes using security features like watermarks, microtext and security strips, it does not actively monitor online platforms for illegal activity. The division added that complaints about counterfeit currency advertised or sold digitally are best forwarded to local police authorities for necessary action.

Traditionally, counterfeit notes were seen as an economic nuisance. But as the racket migrates to digital platforms, we are witnessing counterfeit commerce thriving on the same ecosystem that powers India’s digital economy. The consequences go far beyond a farmer in Dhule or a trader in Surat unwittingly accepting a fake note. They highlight the ease with which illicit markets can repurpose the infrastructure of legitimate commerce.

For now, Rathod’s videos remain online, drawing views, likes and comments. The bundles of notes he flaunts are not hidden on the dark web or back alleys. They sit in the same feed on your digital device, pushed by the same algorithms that bring to you ads of sneakers, smartphones and perfumes.