A week before the celebration of Idul Fitri, people in Jakarta and West Java may want to take a close look at the cash they accept, as police have warned that the two regions are the most prone to counterfeit money distribution.

The National Police’s head of investigation for economic and special crimes, Brig. Gen. Agung Setya, said on Friday that his team would collaborate with Bank Indonesia in preventing and eradicating the crime.

“We’ll keep monitoring the regions, both through investigation and disclosure. For prevention, we’ll map the [specific] risk-prone areas in the two regions as well as keep an eye on former convicts of money forgery,” Agung said.

Meanwhile, Bank Indonesia director of money management, Decymus, said his side would focus on two strategies to combat the crime, namely disseminating information on the matter and improving the quality of cash in circulation.

“From the findings in the field, we never found cases of counterfeit money passing level three, while in fact we have secured rupiah [notes] with 12 levels of security,” Decymus said.

He urged people not to over-use cash in conducting transactions.

Police records from this year show that two in 1 million banknotes in circulation are counterfeit. That figure marks a significant decrease from 13 fake banknotes among 1 million in 2016 and 24 in 2015. (yon)