March is Fraud Prevention Month in Canada, and that means educational efforts related to identifying counterfeit bank notes in circulation.

"As part of Fraud Prevention Month, speakers gathered at the RCMP Heritage Centre on Wednesday. They talked about ways people can spot counterfeit bank notes, cheques and money orders and how to avoid being victimized by identity theft and mail fraud," wrote Trevor Newell in a March 6 story in the Leader-Post of Regina, Saskatchewan.

A couple of statistics about counterfeiting are tossed in to flesh out the story.

The article mentions that DVDs showing characteristics of some fake notes, and also sharing information about how to spot fraudulent checks and detect identity theft, are available from the Bank of Canada.

The DVDs are apparently free to Canada-based retailers. Downloadable segments of the video appear to be available here.

There are further anti-counterfeiting informational videos available from Bank of Canada here.

Completely unrelated — but caught my eye while at the Bank of Canada site — are "souvenir" books about the bank and bank notes, available from the bank.

Can anyone comment on whether the bank's 2006 book about bank notes is worth seeking? It looks good.