Warning: distressing content
An ATM in Sydney’s eastern suburbs has dispensed multiple $50 banknotes defaced with antisemitic vandalism in the past week.
SBS Examines has received confirmation of three independent reports of a Suncorp Bank ATM at North Bondi Ampol Foodary on Old South Head Road supplying the damaged cash.
The notes have been graffitied with the phrase ‘F**k Jews’ and a inverted Hakenkreuz on the forehead of Ngarrindjeri activist and preacher David Uniapon.
Images of the vandalised notes were shared on social media, where commenters and X’s Community Notes feature were quick to call them “fake,” “staged” and “not possible”.
But SBS Examines has verified the incident did in fact occur.
NSW Police confirmed officers from the Eastern Suburbs Area Command attended the service station on Thursday, December 12, at 6pm to investigate the withdrawn banknotes.
“The money has been seized for forensic examination,” a spokespersons said in a statement to SBS Examines.
The store attendant at the petrol station confirmed to SBS Examines that they were made aware of the defaced money and police attended.
A photo of the vandalised notes obtained and verified by SBS Examines. This image has been blurred because it contains graphic material. Credit: Supplied
The same ATM dispensed two more vandalised bank notes the following day to a local Jewish man, Ari, who asked to be identified by his first name only.
Ari told SBS Examines he received the notes from the ATM and, in shock, told the store attendant. The store attendant responded saying he could take them to the bank to be replaced.
“[He was] thinking my concern was more that they were marked, rather than the actual content,” Ari said.
Ari reported the incident to the police who attended his home that evening.
“They acknowledged that it’s completely unacceptable, but that they couldn’t do much more,” Ari said.
He said police advised him to take the money to the bank, “to have it looked into … perhaps they could trace the notes and try to work out a bit more about it”.
NSW Police confirmed they were investigating two separate reports of money containing “offensive handwritten words and images” being disseminated from the ATM, in addition to Ari’s report, including a third incident on Saturday, December 14.
They urged anyone with information about the matter to contact Waverley Police Station or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry told SBS Examines they were aware of reports of these notes circulating.
Co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said the vandalism is “hateful” and “criminal” and he expects police to investigate.
“The hateful people in our society are finding new ways to express their prejudice and their loathing,” he said.
“We can’t control their inner demons and rationalise their abhorrent actions. But we as a community are responding with greater love for our fellow Australians and are deepening our connection to our Jewish identity.”
Can an ATM dispense damaged or defaced banknotes?
A photo taken by Ari’s partner of the defaced cash was posted on X by the Australian Jewish Association on Sunday, December 15. Within hours, a Community Note was added to the post.
Screenshot of the Australian Jewish Association’s post on X including Community Notes response. Credit: X/@AustralianJA/Getty Images
“It is not possible to receive a banknote with graffiti on it directly from an ATM in Australia. The Reserve Bank of Australia ensures quality control of banknotes,” it said, citing the RBA’s website.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has a strict policy to ensure damaged or unfit bank notes are pulled from circulation and destroyed in accordance to Commonwealth legislation. However, its enforcement relies on banks, cash-in-transit (CiT) businesses and every day people returning unfit, damaged, or counterfeit notes.
According to the RBA, defacing Australian currency or being in possession of defaced currency are criminal offences, under Section 16 of the Crimes (Currency) Act 1981.
The Australian Banking Association (ABA) told SBS Examines that “note quality sorting occurs by cash-in-transit providers before they’re loaded into ATMs”.
Banknotes deemed “damaged or defaced” are then returned to RBA and destroyed.
The Suncorp Bank ATM that distributed the defaced $50 banknotes was serviced by Armaguard, who cater to 39 per cent of all Australian ATMS.
Matt Caulfield, CEO of Armaguard told SBS Examines “all banknotes coming into an Armaguard cash centre are fine counted and fitness sorted” through “high-speed cash processing machines”.
He said the machines are “specifically calibrated” to meet the RBA’s banknote fitness standards. The notes that are flagged as unfit are “taken out of circulation” and returned to the RBA for “validation and destruction”. Those that are fit are “recirculated into the economy”.
“Our cash processing machines are well maintained, regularly calibrated and tested. Our high-speed fitness sorting machines are the same as used by central banks globally to process and fitness sort returned banknotes,” Mr Caulfield said.
“Therefore, the risk that a damaged banknote is not identified by out machines, and recirculated back into the community, is extremely low.
“The vast majority of damaged banknotes in circulation exist because they are recycling within the community and not making their way to a cash centre for processing and fitness sorting.”
How does vandalised currency stay in circulation?
Armaguard is aware of the incidents reported at Bondi and is investigating if the banknotes were “tebbed or recycled, thus bypassing the high speed machines”.
‘Tebbed’ notes are banknotes provided in large quantities to CiT by banks. These notes have already been through screening and have been deemed fit for re-circulation. They aren’t subject to screening by CiTs.
Cash recycling sees the redistribution of deposited cash that has been screened for fitness by the bank.
These circumstances could provide an opportunity for currency to be damaged or defaced before being supplied to an ATM.
In a statement to SBS Examines, Suncorp Bank said they “do not stand for the vandalism of banknotes”.
“We have stringent procedures to ensure any damaged or unfit notes are removed from circulation, if we are made aware,” a spokesperson said.
They said all cash supplied to their ATMs is managed by Armaguard.
‘Staged’ and ‘fake’ accusations swirl on social media
Photographs of the vandalised cash were posted and rapidly shared online, appearing on X, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
SBS Examines has obtained and verified photographs of the banknotes taken by Ari and his partner.
The photos have been picked apart by social media users, who claimed either the incident or the images had been faked to engender sympathy for the Jewish community.
Some users suggested the photos had been digitally altered, due to differences between the designs on two $50 banknotes photographed by Ari’s partner.
However, all the banknotes featured in the image are RBA-approved currency and all remain in circulation.
Accusations of disinformation have been amplified by X’s fact checking function, Community Notes.
Another Community Note on the same post by the Australian Jewish Association accused a photograph of the two vandalised $50 banknotes of being “staged”.
“This photo has been staged. The odds of receiving two identically defaced notes in circulation (which they are by definition if found in an ATM) are impossibly low. There are almost 1 billion $50 notes currently in circulation in Australia,” it said, with a link to a about Australians hoarding cash.
Screenshot of Community Notes post on @AustralianJA X post. Credit: X/@AustralianJA/Getty Images
Community Notes (formerly Birdwatch) is a feature on X that allows users to add notes to tweets.
But it’s not regulated, and isn’t considered a reliable source of information.
“Community Notes aims to create a better-informed world, by empowering people on X to collaboratively add helpful notes to posts that might be misleading,” .
Associate Professor of Digital Media at Queensland University of Technology and misinformation expert, Timothy Graham said the feature can be thought of as “a crowdsourced fact checking mechanism” which operates with “very little independent oversight”.
While X says Community Notes can provide fact checks and further context, A/Prof Graham said research shows it’s not accurate, particularly when it comes to topics like politics.
“Community Notes are often used as a sort of weapon by politically motivated actors,” he said.
“People who contribute to it are not the main experts in an area. So when we have questions of a technical nature … ones that can really only be properly answered by experts in the finance industry and in banking … it doesn’t seem to work very well.”
A/Prof Graham said X users might view Community Notes as similar to Wikipedia.
“If it gets into Wikipedia, it’s gone through enough hoops and enough different processes that you can basically say … what emerges from that process is going to be the truth. It’s going to be factual,” he said.
“But it just doesn’t work.”
He said the platform can instead “breed misinformation,” eroding trust.
“The more that people lose faith and lose trust in the institutions and the people and the actors that we rely on in order to be able to help us navigate and make sense of really difficult and really challenging topics like this … that, to me, is probably one of the most damaging effects of mis- and disinformation.”
‘Ill, hurt and disappointed’
Ari told SBS Examines he was left feeling “ill and hurt, and disappointed” when he withdrew the banknotes from the ATM.
He said he was distressed by claims the incident was fabricated.
“The fact that someone would think that someone in the community would want to do this to get attention is a reflection of how bad things have gotten,” he said.
“Efforts should rather go towards stamping out hatred … as opposed to going online to try and dispute whether or not a banknote has been forged.”
