City records first instance of fake new note as Mumbai police issues advisory, increases vigil.While citizens are still queuing up at banks and ATMs and political pundits are still debating the merits of the Prime Minister’s most ambitious move till date – the demonetisation of Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes — currency counterfeiters are not wasting time doing either. And the fact that such people are also here in this city became abundantly clear on Wednesday when the first such instance came to our attention.An unsuspecting shopkeeper at an Andheri wine shop fell prey to this when he accepted a fake Rs2,000 note.“My friend, who works at a wine shop, was cheated on Wednesday. He accepted the fake Rs2,000 note for a sale of Rs1,000 and gave back the change. He realised later that the note was a fake one,” said Shiv Makwana, who owns a shop near Andheri station. As a result, Makwana has also started refusing these new notes.“I still cannot differentiate between a fake and real Rs500 and Rs2,000 note. So even I have stopped taking these notes,” he said.A number of similar instances reported from across the city have now prompted Mumbai police to issue a warning and keep avigil on such transactions.The irony in Makwana’s friend’s instance is that the counterfeiters merely photocopied and scanned the real note, and then simply printed it out , without even bothering to fake the security features.“These counterfeiters are taking advantage of the people as they know that not many people have used these new notes and are banking on their inability to differentiate between the real and the fake ones,” a police officer said, on the condition of anonymity.Ashok Dudhe, spokesperson and Deputy Commissioner of Mumbai Police, said, “As a precautionary measure, all the police stations in Mumbai have been advised to keep a close eye on photocopy shops and also on all shops, so that anyone trying to transact with these fake notes can be caught.”Asimilar case of currency cheating was registered in Tarn Taran, 40 kilometres from Amritsar where two persons were arrested for producing counterfeits using scanners and printers. The arrested duo admitted to have circulated the currency by taking advantage of the fact that not many of these notes were in circulation yet.