In these dire financial times, it’s far too easy to jump on an irresistible offer for a great amount of free money that costs you nothing. However, life has taught us that nothing comes for free, and if something is too good to be true, it usually is. The year 2000 saw a new scam to arrive on the scene, called the Black Money Scam, and it’s so advanced and sly that many people don’t even realize they’re being scammed.
Compared to the advance-fee scam, there’s not much difference, but there’s a tangle amount of money in a trunk that is hoisted in front of victims. In this scam, a conman will contact the victim and proceed to convince them that they have real bills in this trunk or safe, and can give it to them for nothing at all, providing them with a couple of bills to prove their legitimacy.
The money is black in color, and the conman tells the victim the dye is for avoidance of tax payments. The money has been turned black through a combination of raspberry Kool-Aid, iodine and white glue, as interviews with apprehended con artists have revealed.
There are several real bills treated in the same way and the rest of the container will be full of black construction paper, to convince the victim they are asked to choose a random bill to “restore” which is actually a genuine note the con artist has palmed and changes out for the randomly chosen piece of construction paper. The palmed cash that was cleverly switched is then treated with a simple solution that removes the coloring and the victim is thereby convinced the entire trunk is full of genuine bank notes.
The victim typically receives an email that was sent randomly among a list of email addresses that the scam artists pick up for one reason or another. Not many people will actually respond, but correspondence will result in eventual phone conversations; if this happens to you, you can use tele-search.com/California/San-Diego/858/653.htm to find out whether or not they’re a legitimate source or service, or if that number has been linked to other scams.
The Wash Wash Ripoff shares some factors with the advanced fee scam in that cash will be required from the victim to cover what might seem to be ordinary expenses to get the money into the country or purchase special chemicals to restore it. The requests for more cash will not stop until the mark becomes suspicious or balky, these are con men and can find many reasons to continue to milk the victim. The next step of this ripoff is to hook the mark further by having them sign a document stating they know they are doing something illegal such as accepting money acquired by drug dealing or theft, or an intent to avoid taxes, this is only done when the victim seems to be catching on and this is also the time when the “proof” will be presented and the victim shown how the cash is real using the fake bill switch.
As with any new scam, for many it can be difficult to catch on initially which is why scams have a tendency to be so successful at first. However, even if a person is allowed to keep the trunk, suitcase, or whatever the funds are held in for a time until the solution is purchased, it is important to remember that it’s a con game and that the mark always looses, generally everything they have. An indicator would be if told not to open it as exposure to air will prevent a reversal of the dye process.
Like I wrote before, people have sent reports to the police about how they were conned in these Black Money Scams, leading to arrests. Despite your embarrassment at being conned so easily, it’s worth it to inform the authorities, if only to prevent this same kind of fraud from happening to anyone else.
To learn more about the reverse phone search service that can help you prevent frauds go to tele-search.com/Pennsylvania/Hatboro/215/442.htm