If accepting more than $10K in cash for a used boat, should I worry about counterfeiting?
When you operate outside of the law, you bear the risks of that decision.  When you operate within the law, you have a number of avenues, such as the courts and police to mediate disputes or other problems. If you get counterfeit money, then you're dealing with the criminal who is going to be punished by the law for doing that. The portion of the total sum that was paid with the counterfeit currency is considered unpaid and you can claim the money from the criminal and sue him, while he's in jail. He'll work hard on those license plates to pay you off. However, making false statements and assisting in a tax evasion scheme compromises your ability to go to the law enforcement in case of any wrongdoing, and then you should worry about the counterfeit money, because the law won't be on your side to help you. And you don't even get anything out of it... Why on earth are you willing to take this risk? Just so you know, it may also be money laundering, which may get you in trouble even more with the law. I'd not do business under these terms. A bill of sale needs a signature, right? Your signature is your word, and your word is your bond. I wouldn't participate in such a fraud, nor would I accept this sum of cash, who knows its origins? I'd worry more about falsifying documents of sale.  No good reason at all to do that. Detecting counterfeit bills is easy if they're all new bills.  Hold them up to the light and look for the watermark and the numbered tape in the bill.  Refuse any bad ones. I'd be a bit concerned about someone who wanted to transact that large of a transaction in cash.  Also consider what you are going to do with the funds, if you deposit it, you will need to tell the bank where it comes from. Why does the bank want to know, because most legal businesses don't transact business with large sums of currency.. What does that tell you about the likelihood the person you are about to do business with is a criminal or involved in criminal affairs?  The lower bill of sale price might be more than just to dodge taxes, it could be part of money laundering..  If they can turn right around and 'sell' the boat for $10K, or trade it in on a bigger boat for the same amount, and have a bill than says $4K, then they have just come up with a legal explanation for how they made 6 grand.  and you could potentially be considered an accomplice if someone is checking up on their finances. Really, is it worth the risk. "Paying tax is a Good Thing. However, warren has made good point and I would like you to consider this other thing: Go into your payees bank with the payee, get the money withdrawn from the teller and take it with you. Unless I am missing something, or the teller handed your payee fake notes, you are ""safe""" The only issue I can see is that the stranger is looking to undervalue their purchase to save money on taxes/registration (if applicable in your state). Buying items with cash such as cars, boats, etc in the used market isn't all that uncommon* - I've done it several times (though not at the 10k mark, more along about half of that). As to the counterfeit issue, there are a couple avenues you can pursue to verify the money is real: *it's the preferred means of payment advocated by some prominent personal financial folks, including Dave Ramsey I would not do a bill of sale for less, but a legal and safe way to reduce the taxes is to write separate bills for the boat, motor and trailer.  The taxes are paid at different rates and will represent to full sale price.
There are many counterfeit products on Amazon, as well as stocking and packing measures that result in products arriving broken or open. Make-up, supplements, and personal care products are among those that are often counterfeit.   Edit: [Link to one](https://www.inc.com/sonya-mann/amazon-counterfeits-no-starch.html) of many articles about Amazon's Counterfeit Problem "Credit cards have three important advantages. None of them are for day-to-day borrowing of money. Safety - Credit cards have better fraud protection than checks or cash, and better than most debit/check cards. If you buy something with a credit card, you also get the issuer's (think Visa) assurances that your will get the product you paid for, or your money back. At almost any time, if a product you buy is not what you expect, you can work with the issuer, even if the store says ""screw you"". Security - Credit cards are almost universally accepted as a ""security"" against damages to the vendor. Hotels, car rentals, boat rentals etc. will accept a credit card as a means of securing their interests. Without that, you may have to make huge deposits, or not be able to rent at all. For example, in my area (touristy) you can not rent a car on debit or cash. You must use a credit card. Around here most hotel rooms require a credit card as well. This is different from area to area, but credit cards are nearly universally accepted. Emergencies - If you're using your credit card properly, then you have some extra padding when stuff goes wrong. For example, it may be cheaper to place a bill on a credit card for a couple months while you recover from a car accident, than to deplete your bank account and have to pay fees. Bonus - Some cards have perks, like miles, points, or cash back. Some can be very beneficial. You need to be careful about the rules with these bonuses. For example, some cards only give you points if you carry a balance. Some only give miles if you shop at certain stores. But if you have a good one, these can be pretty fantastic. A 3% cash back on purchases can make a large difference over time." This article is very short on details. How much Bitcoin did he buy? If he spent $10k or more the bank is LEGALLY REQUIRED to ask why he is buying it, just as they would be if he was withdrawing the cash.  What's more, the threshold can be far lower than 10K, especially if it appears you  are doing multiple  transactions for  the express purpose  of being below 10K. Since the article explicitly said he did multiple transactions, this is a likely possibility as well. If you're living in a market where some houses are going for $150K over asking, then you MUST buy before you sell.  In a seller's market, you will get multiple offers on your current house when you decide to sell, it will sell for (well) over asking, and you can dictate possession dates.  You do not need to worry about selling your own home, if you have a competent realtor. But buying a home is an entirely different story.  You may struggle to find something affordable, and there may be multiple buyers each time you decide to make an offer.  You may go through this cycle several times over many months before your offer  is accepted.  You should do this while living in your own home, with the comfort of knowing that you can sell your own home easily at any time, instead of the stress of an imminent closing date on your own home.  Or worse, move into rented space or Malvolio's mom's house for months or a year while the market increases by 15% and the houses in your old area are now selling for $100K more than you sold for.  Ouch, now you really can't afford to buy what you want, and you may end up buying something equivalent to what you used to own, for more, plus legal, realtor, and land transfer costs. If the closing dates don't align, then bridge.  This will only end up costing a few hundred dollars, less than $1K including legal fees (the lawyer will also charge to handle this).  But by buying before you sell, you'll easily make up that difference. This advice only applies to hot property markets.  I'm not a realtor, just a guy living in the GTA who went through this process last year.  Lost out on three offers over 10 months, then bought for asking price on fourth offer (very fortunate), then sold for $90K over asking, then bridged for 2 months.  My realtor is awesome and made the process as stress free as it can be.   Get a good realtor, start house hunting while preparing your own house for sale, and enjoy the process.  Also you should negotiate with your realtor, they may be willing to reduce their commission on your sale if they are also representing you on the purchase. Good luck! P.S. Do not make a contingent offer, and do not accept one.  Get your financing in place before you make an offer, and if you are concerned about inspection, you can also do that before the offer, if you act quickly.  The inspection will cost ~$500, but it will increase the value of your offer by much more than that since you will be going in without conditions.  I spent ~$1,000 on two property inspections on homes I lost out on, and I don't regret it.  That is the cost of doing business. The other offers on the home I eventually bought were for significantly more than my offer, but they had conditions.  I saved at least $40K by being condition free, and I only spent $1,500 on three property inspections.  And, some people will just drop out of the multiple offer scenario when they learn that one of the buyers has done an inspection. Use prepaid cards. You only have to declare, or mention, or convert CASH. You can get as many $500 prepaid cards as you like and carry them across. US Code only mentions cash, so even if customs thought it was peculiar that you had one thousand prepaid cards in your trunk, it isn't something they look into. Prepaid cards come with small transaction fees though. And of course, you could also use a bank account in America and just withdraw from an ATM in canada.  Finally, the FBAR isn't that much of a hassle, in case you did decide to get a canadian bank account. The US Federal Gov't doesn't care about all these crafty things you might do, as long as you are using POST-TAX money. If your foreign account earns interest, then you have some pre-tax money that the US Federal Gov't will care about. "I don't think that there is a generic answer that will apply to this question across all goods.  The answer depends on how the related businesses work, how much insight you have into the true value of the goods, and probably other things.  Your car example is a good one that shows multiple options - There are dealers who will buy as a single transaction, sell as a single transaction, or do a simultaneous sell with trade-in.  I had a hot tub once, on the other hand, where I could find people who would do a trade-in, but there was no dealer who would just buy my used tub.  There's not much parallel between the car and the tub because the options available are very different. To the extent that there is a generic answer, I generally agree with the point in @keshlam's answer about trying to avoid entrapment, but I take a slightly different view.  If you want to get your best deal, you need to have an idea going into the process of what you want in net and keep focused on meeting your goal. If for some reason, it's convenient for the dealer to ""move money around"" between the new car and the trade-in, I'm ok with that as long as I'm getting what I want out of the deal.  If possible, I prefer to deal with both transactions at once because it's simpler.  At the same time, I'm willing to remove the trade-in from the deal if I'm not getting what I want. (Threatening to do so can also give you some information about where the dealer really puts the value between the new car and trade-in since, if you threaten to pull the trade-in, the price on the car will probably change in response.)" If they bring cash, meet at your bank to verify. If they want to use cashiers check, meet them at their bank. Large amounts use wires directly to your acct and verify (not only received, but deposited) before handing over the title/keys. Not by you. Your bank might have to fill some reports for the IRS, but for the customer, nothing needs to be done. As long as the money is not income from illegal activity you don't need to worry about it.