Black-Wash Currency Scams Making A Comeback

A Fake Money Scam – How Scams Work

A SCARS Insight

Black Money Cleaning Scam – It’s Coming Back In Asia 

The black money scam, sometimes also known as the “black dollar scam” or “wash wash scam”, is a scam where criminals attempt to fraudulently obtain money from a victim by convincing them that piles of banknote-sized paper are real currency that has been stained in a heist (or similarly that they can print counterfeit notes from the blanks the scammers have). The victim is persuaded to pay fees and purchase chemicals to remove the dye, with the promise of a share in the proceeds.

The black money scam is a variation of what is known as advance fee fraud.

The Black Money Scam, or money cleaning scam originated in Africa but is now active across most Asian countries. Despite frequent media reports of victims and warnings from national police forces new victims continue to fall prey to the scam.

For Those Not Familiar With The Black Money Scam, Or Money Cleaning Scam It Works Like This:

Typically the scammer will send out thousands, if not millions, of e-mails to known and random e-mail addresses, hoping for a few replies. The initial message may read something like this:

I am a lawyer in Belgium and I am charged with seeking the rightful heir to certain assets which were deposited many years ago with a security company here in Brussels by a man who died a few years ago. We have made extensive searches to find any living heirs, but with minimal success. A man with your name is named in the Will and Testament as being the only beneficiary of these assets. We believe that you may be the person entitled and are writing to enquire if you have any dead relatives or friends who may have named you as a beneficiary of these assets in their will and testament. If so please let us have their names and any other information so we can check if you are indeed the beneficiary. The amount of the assets is $150,000 and one large trunk, contents unknown. Please reply immediately

Some cases involve the scammer resorting to directly approaching the victim.

Some of the fraudsters form a romantic relationship with the intended victim, while others attempt to build a friendship. Sooner rather than later the matter of him/her having a friend who has just arrived in the country with a large amount of money that has been disguised by black ink to avoid customs detection is raised.

Playing on the greed of the intended victim the amount of money that the fraudster’s new ‘friend’ has is anywhere up to US$100 million, and all that is needed are some chemicals to clean the money.

Unfortunately, the new ‘friend’ hasn’t got the money needed to clean the black money so he or she is looking for a partner to cover the cost of the chemicals in exchange for xx percent of the money.

To dispel any disbelief the intended victim is shown how easy the cleaning process is – often in a video, and is may be sent given one of the cleaned notes to take away and get verified as being authentic.

The Victim Pays

Good fraudsters come up with a variety of reasons to get the victim to pay increasing amounts for the magic chemicals necessary, including that the solution was spoiled by heat or cold, is out of date, or was seized by customs.

Once the fraudsters have milked as much money out of the victim as they can they then vanish, leaving. According to local police most victims don’t report the crime, not wanting to admit their shame, or that they had agreed to participate in cleaning black money obtained due to criminal activity such as drug smuggling, tax evasion, or theft.

How Is The Black Money Scam Done?

A few genuine US dollar bank notes are first coated with a thin solution of polyvinyl acetate (PVA) glue, marked under a number of names including wood glue, white glue, carpenter’s glue, school glue, Elmer’s glue (USA), or simply PVA glue. Once the glue has dried the bills are then coated with a tincture of iodine.

The cleaning solutions and chemicals necessary to wash the black money can be anything the fraudsters think up, with cases in the past seeing flavored cordial, ground-up aspirin dissolved in water, or even talcum powder being used.

Most people have never seen the con performed, so we include this sample video in our uh-hu collection in the hopes that people’s curiosity of the con is sated.

Terminology Used In The Scam

THE DEFACED MONEY

• Anti-breeze bank notes
• Black Money

THE CHEMICAL

• S.S.D. Solution
• Vectrol Paste
• Tebi-Manetic
• Humine Powder
  • solid solution
  • Shiba / Fay
  • Motion
  • Decharge
  • Sahualla

Chemicals Used

A Ghanaian native caught perpetrating the scam revealed the tricks of the trade. Authentic US$100 bills are coated with a protective layer of glue and then dipped into a solution of tincture of iodine. The bill, when dried, looks and feels like black sugar paper. Most of notes are real sugar paper; when the victim picks a “note” for cleaning, it is switched with the iodine-coated note. The “magic cleaning solution” is actually crushed vitamin C tablets dissolved in water. In another arrest, ordinary raspberry drink mix was found to be the “magic cleaning solution”. Solutions of calcium hydroxide and magnesium hydroxide have also been used as washing agents in the scam.

The TV show, “Better Call Saul” used this scam to scam someone during a brief montage of Saul’s height as a con artist. This could’ve been a reference to the sister series, “Breaking Bad” and its use of chemistry.