Some holidaymakers believe that some of the foreign currency they are issued through the bureaux de change has been forged.

The BBC have been contacted by several holiday makers who claim that they only found out about the forgery when they came to use the notes abroad in shops and hotels. This has caused people to call for greater consumer protection.

But it would seem impossible as the UK foreign currency providers are saying that they are not the source of such notes and that their security systems are secure.

One example of a holidaymaker short-changed is Mr Macdonald from London who was about to holiday in South America and so ordered $1,100 (£690) from the Post Office online currency service last month.

He had several notes rejected upon trying to spend them, and so investigated further, discovering that he had 32 $20 bills that were fake. This amounts to £400.

He is positive that the only place he could have received these notes was from the Post Office and that there was no chance that people could have switched genuine notes for forged ones after they came to be within his possession.

No Proof

After returning home from his holiday, he sent the forged notes off to the Post Office, who confirmed that they were in fact fake, but refused to refund them.

Mr Macdonals says: “They’ve got all the dollars, they accept they’re counterfeit. That suggests to me, there are a lot of serious flaws in their systems. They haven’t suggested any way this could have occurred.”

The Post Office also insists it has checked their security, but found no breaches. It says: “The Post Office only supplies mint condition notes for these orders, supplied directly from the US Federal Reserve Bank through our currency partner, First Rate. We are very confident that the currency we issued was genuine.”

Another victim to the forgery was Ms Chandler from Kent who was again sold fake US dollars for her holiday in Las Vagas.

The US Secret Service detained her after discovering that she had $800 worth of counterfeit money in her possession.

“The said ‘stand up please, put your hands behind your back, they are counterfeit notes’ and they marched me off,” she described.

No Compensation

She was later released after she revealed that she was a regular visitor to the country and that she had a receipt from her foreign exchange provider, Thompson, in her possession.

Thompson is also refusing to take responsibility for the notes, insisting that the notes they issued were all previously used notes, therefore if the notes were new as Ms Chandler claims, they were not the provider, therefore refusing compensation.

“Our US currency undergoes rigorous checks for forgery before being sold on to customers. Our staff are trained to spot counterfeit notes and systems are in place to ensure any forgeries are intercepted,” it says.

Legally, victims who aren’t offered compensation can’t do much.

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