Man holding $50 bills. (Credit: Envato).
BEIRUT – Just a few days ago, Philippe, a young Lebanese based in Paris, was listening to his father's frustration over the phone. He had just gotten back from a gas station in Lebanon that had refused to take a $50 bill he was trying to use to pay. Rumors of fake $50 bills flooding the market had made businesses wary of accepting them the past week.The economic crisis which had erupted at the end of 2019 had paved the way for the proliferation of a cash economy in Lebanon – estimated at $9.9 billion or 45.7 percent of GDP in 2022 by the World Bank – making the country particularly vulnerable to cash scams and counterfeiting.Believed to have made their way to Lebanon from Turkey, who’s been also dealing with the circulation of counterfeit dollar bills since late November, the problem seems to expand beyond a national scope, said Majd El...
BEIRUT – Just a few days ago, Philippe, a young Lebanese based in Paris, was listening to his father's frustration over the phone. He had just gotten back from a gas station in Lebanon that had refused to take a $50 bill he was trying to use to pay. Rumors of fake $50 bills flooding the market had made businesses wary of accepting them the past week.The economic crisis which had erupted at the end of 2019 had paved the way for the proliferation of a cash economy in Lebanon – estimated at $9.9 billion or 45.7 percent of GDP in 2022 by the World Bank – making the country particularly vulnerable to cash scams and counterfeiting.Believed to have made their way to Lebanon from Turkey, who’s been also dealing with the circulation of counterfeit dollar bills since late November, the problem seems to expand beyond a national scope, said...