(November 1, 2005) — One afternoon, I came home to encounter my mom’s frustration against the bank. She went on about how the bank teller should be fired and how careless the bank is. Moments later, I heard her talking–more like yelling—on the phone with the bank manager about how this should never happen again. Earlier that day my mother withdrew $1,000 in crisp $100 bills, from Bank of America. She then drove to Washington Mutual Bank to deposit the money in another account. They checked and rechecked the ten hundreds; where they found one fraudulent bill. Alarmed, she sped back to Bank of America to tell them of their grave mistake. Instead of apologies, she was served a plate of accusatory comments; such that she had switched the bills before returning to the bank and so forth. Under the circumstances, I explained, the bank teller was correct to assume such acts. “If their trained employees cannot tell the difference between counterfeit and authentic bills then how am I?!” my mother retorted. Truly, banks do not intend for customers to double check bills when it is the bank that was trained with eyes and hands. As soon as I organized my thoughts and questions, I embarked on a journey to the source of the situation: Bank of America. I reached checkings and savings customer service manager, Whitney Campbell of Bank of America. I asked her how banks deal with counterfeit money deposited or withdrawn from the bank. Campbell offered plenty of information regarding the consequences of depositing counterfeit money. She said, “All of the bills and checks go throughout extra processes.” When asked how they deal with customers being given counterfeit bills, she was silent, I proceeded to ask if ever a case has occurred; to which she replied, “no.” Considering the constant movement of cash collected and exported to various businesses, institutions and people, there is no economic way for every bill to be thoroughly examined. Therefore, handing money to a bank is just as secure as stuffing it in a mattress, except there are no worries of natural disasters or crooks wiping away your life savings.