Sunday, June 01, 2008

Counterfeit Argentine Pesos

A freaking fake.

I feel violated. I exchanged $140 at the money exchange booth inside the Buenos Aires Airport. It turns out that they gave me some counterfeit bills! I have about $250 worthless Argentinian pesos.
This is the first time this ever happens to me. I tried to pay for a beer and a cappuccino and the waiter would not accept my bill. It turned out that all of them were just paper. One really feels like a schmuck when this happens, but it's not that I changed the money with a cabdriver. I did it at an official exchange place. If you look at the bills, indeed they are kinda funky, but it's not that easy to tell if you don't know how local money should feel to the touch. They even have a fake watermark which also gives them away.
What to do?
The police will probably think I faked them. If I ever succeed in getting through to them it will probably be more trouble than it's worth.
My feeling is get a baseball bat and bash the head in (flying shards of shattered glass included) of the c__t that gave them to me. I'm pretty sure she knew what she was doing, although she seemed the nicest. Still, she asked me if I didn't want to change 40 bucks more to get a better exchange rate.
I do not appreciate being a sucker.
Most probably, when it's my turn to fly out I will go back to that dump and raise a little hell, just to feel slightly vindicated.
With all due respect, what kind of godforsaken, piss-ant dump is this that there are so many counterfeit bills floating around?
Cabdrivers will not accept money that has a little tear, nobody ever has change and then you get swindled in official places. Not good for the P.R., okay?
One of my colleagues got his counterfeit bill from an ATM machine in a bank!
So, cautionary tale: if you still insist on coming here, make sure you take a good look at the bills even if they come from a cash machine (in which case u r fucked) or from reputable looking institutions. Do not change your money at Global Exchange in the airport. You should behave like freaking Sherlock Holmes from Scotland Yard when confronted with any paper money. Have fun!
I will keep you posted.

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