The public must be wary of the upsurge in circulation of counterfeit CFA Franc notes, particularly, in the denomination of the 2,000 and 10,000 CFA Franc notes, official sources have warned.

These notes are commonly used by the eight West African States belonging to the West African Economic and Monitory Union.

A statement issued by the Information Services Department of the Ministry of Information Friday said the crime, which is believed to be perpetrated by a network of counterfeiters in Cote d’Ivoire, takes advantage of retailers and petty traders, who carry out their activities on daily basis without the use of counterfeit detectors.

It also mentioned other places where these counterfeits are being introduced as markets places, funeral grounds and night clubs.

The statement, therefore advises users of the CFA Franc currency to use their counterfeit detectors or do physical comparison of suspected notes with genuine CFA bank notes in order to identify security features such as water marks, texture of the notes and the visible security threads with the inscription of the value of the note to identify the counterfeit notes.**