Just after 8 p.m. on the last Thursday of March, a man approached the main desk in the Wood Center and asked for four $10 bills in exchange for two $20s.

The $20 bills he handed over were counterfeit.

Unfortunately, the discovery that the money wasn't real didn't occur until after the man had already left.

Ryan Keele, the student building supervisor, was the one who handed the man his change and later realized that the bills were forgeries.

"The colors were really good, but you could feel right away that it wasn't the right type of paper," Keele said. "For a while I thought that maybe they were new bills."

When he held the bill up to the light, Keele thought he could make out the holographic image that newer treasury notes have.

Because printing and copying technology is so advanced, forgeries are becoming increasingly easy to make and more difficult to distinguish from real money.

Counterfeit detecting technology has also advanced and the Wood Center desk is equipped with a pen that reacts uniquely to the ink and parchment used in U.S. currency.

"Every once in awhile we get word that there are counterfeiters around and that is what prompted us to buy the pens," said Jeri Maxwell, Keele's boss and the Wood Center's associate director of operations.

But the pen wasn't helpful in this particular situation. The ink's reaction, which should have exposed the fake bills, allowed the culprit a chance to get away as it was not strong enough for Keele to definitively determine the money was not real.

After further examination, Keele figured out that the bills were fakes because the serial numbers on both twenties were the same. He contacted the police immediately.

"The campus cops came maybe five minutes later, and I gave them a description of the guy," Keele said. "Who ever it was probably had full knowledge of what they held in their hands."

The police questioned Keele and laid out a black and white photo line-up. Keele was unable to positively identify the man, though he was able to provide a vague description.

Lt. Syrilyn Tong of the University Police Department said the department could not make any specific statements about the money.

"It is still under active investigation and we don't want to tip our hand," Tong said.

Finding counterfeit money isn't a novel event, with a few forged bills turning up at UAF every couple years. There are warning systems in place to notify the various places on campus to alert people to be on the look-out.

The main desk in the Wood Center is uniquely in jeopardy because it has a policy of providing change for anyone who asks for it.

"We usually get a call from someone, the cops or the bank," Maxwell said. "When we find some we call the pub and try to spread the word as fast as we can."

Tong said people should be on the look out for funny money.

"Be aware that there are bills out there that are fake," she said. "Gone are the days when ink smears made it really easy to tell counterfeit bills. People need to be aware in their transactions with other to make sure that they're not being duped."