What´s meant Black Money Scam?

 

Knowledge is power!

 

The black money scam, sometimes also known as the 'wash wash scam', is a scam where con artists attempt to fraudulently obtain money from a victim by persuading him or her that piles of banknote-sized paper in a trunk or a safe is really money which has been dyed black (e.g. to avoid detection by customs). The victim is persuaded to pay for chemicals to wash the "money" with a promise that he will share in the proceeds.


The black money scam first appeared around the year 2000. It is yet another variation of what is known as advance fee fraud.

Phases of the scam

First contact

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 without 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

Advance fees: the fraud starts

As the communications between the two parties continue, it will become necessary for certain fees and expenses to be paid, including government taxes, or death duties. In reality, there are no such taxes to be paid. However the need to pay fees or taxes is used as an excuse to make any free funds vanish, and/or to extract funds from the victim.

A trunk full of black money?

Eventually by various means and devices the victim will be persuaded that the trunk contains a very large amount of cash which had a legitimate, or not so legitimate, reason for all this money to be in cash. Furthermore, the money has all been stained black to avoid detection by customs. A valid reason for this will be given: "The deceased traded in African artifacts and had to pay for some expensive items in cash before he died. To avoid customs problems and theft the money had to be stained black" The victim is assured that the chemical needed for washing the money is also in the trunk.

The victim may have already coughed up some money to pay fees and taxes, and he may now be invited to pay the shipping expenses of the trunk to his home country. Whether paid or not, the trunk will not be shipped and further sums will be demanded on various pretexts, such as taxes, security company fees, money transfer fees, legalization fees, export permissions, etc. The list is endless.

Victim goes to see the money

When at some point the victim is having doubts, or showing reluctance to pay any more, he will be invited to inspect the contents of the safety deposit trunk himself. With much ceremony and pomp, the box will be opened to reveal the black paper. The victim will be informed that these are banknotes stained black with an almost unwashable chemical but that a chemical exists which can clean the banknotes.

Washing a small sample of the black "money"

Then the conman will produce a small vial of the washing liquid and ask the victim to select any black bank note at random. This done, the conman proceeds to wash the banknote in the chemical, performing a sleight of hand, substituting real note which is washed.

There will be insufficient liquid to wash any more money, or the conman may simply "knock" the bottle on the floor.

More funds needed to pay for washing chemical fluid.

The victim cannot take away the trunk, or any notes, since he is informed that the taxes have not been paid, but once the notes are "washed", it will be easy to pay the taxes and there will be millions left over. The victim is persuaded that he must buy the chemical to wash the notes, and of course the chemical cleaning fluid is "very expensive". Once again the victim parts with money to the fraudster. Sometimes the fraudsters will set up a website purporting to be a seller of the cleaning fluid, which obviously has such a unique and unusual name that it can not be found anywhere else. This adds to the credibility of the story and the victim may even contact the website directly to buy the fluid, allowing the conmen yet another chance to con the victim.

Delay after delay, more fees, no money

The fraudsters will continue to find excuses as to why the victim cannot have his money just yet, but will always & always promise it after one "last and absolutely final step", which obviously involves the payment of yet another fee by the victim. The scammers will continue to milk the victim until they are sure he has no more money, and that he cannot get any by begging and borrowing from friends or banks, or until the victim realises that he is being scammed, and gets the police involved. Needless to say the fraudsters themselves and the victim's money is usually long gone by the time the police are involved.

Reporting of the crime

Most such frauds are not reported by the victims for several reasons. Firstly they may feel terribly ashamed that they could be so stupid and naïve. Secondly, many of the scams will involve the victim knowingly agreeing to receive the proceeds of a crime - e.g. he may be informed that it is drug money, tax evasion money, or simply stolen. Sometimes the scammer will have persuaded the victim to incriminate himself, e.g by falsifying a document, or lying on a tax declaration etc. The victim may thus be reluctant to come forward and admit that he was knowingly participating in what he thought was a criminal scheme.

• Metropolitan Police Information on the fraud from the London Metropolitan Police Service

Chemicals Used

A Ghanaian native caught perpetrating the scam revealed to ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross the tricks of the trade:[1] Real hundred dollar bills are coated with a protective layer of Elmer's glue and then dipped into a solution of tincture of iodine. The bill, when dried, looks and feels like black construction paper. The trunk full of notes are real construction 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.

• Secrets Behind 'Black Money' Scam ABC News

Tincture of iodine

Tincture of iodine is usually 10% elemental iodine in ethanol, although it is also available in 2%, 3%, and 7% mixtures. It is an essential component of any emergency survival kit, used both to disinfect wounds and to sanitize surface water for drinking. When alcohol solution is not desirable, Lugol's iodine, an aqueous solution of iodine in potassium iodide solution, or povidone-iodine (Betadine), a PVPI solution, can be used. It can also be used to detect and treat iodine deficiency which can lead to hypothyroidism.

Iodine is toxic. Children and pregnant women, who are more sensitive to it, should avoid its use. Human metabolism requires trace amount of Iodine, which is satisfied by iodised salt.

When using iodine to sanitize surface water, it should be left to sit for 30 minutes before drinking, allowing time for all viruses and bacteria to be killed. If the water temperature is less than 20 °C (68 °F), sitting time should be extended to several hours. To purify 1 L (34 oz) of water, 0.3 mL (0.01 oz) of 2% tincture should be used. Cold or cloudy water should be given 2.4 mL (0.08 oz) of 2% iodine, and should be left to sit for several hours.

Iodine used to sanitize water is also available in tablet or crystal form. One form or another should be available at health stores, and trip outfitters.

Construction paper

Construction paper or sugar paper, is a type of coarse colored paper typically available in large sheets. The texture is slightly rough, and the surface is unfinished. Due to the nature of the source material from which the paper is manufactured, small particles are visible on the paper’s surface.

How construction paper is made

Wood chunks and hot water are mixed to form a mushy mixture called pulp. Recycled paper is also added to make the pulp thicker and dye is then added to give it color. Then the pulp mixture is moved over a wire conveyor belt to remove the water and as a result, the pulp becomes less shiny, less mushy and more like paper. The pulp is then moved over big heated barrels where the heat dries up remaining water and the pulp then becomes construction paper. The paper is put into big rolls, where it is sent to a machine called a feeder and is cut into large sheets. The sheets are then cut into smaller pieces and wrapped in plastic to be sold in stores.

Use

Construction paper is commonly used by young schoolchildren for school art projects. As the paper comes in a wide range of colors, there is no need for users to color it themselves.
The paper is also used by artists and animators. The animated cartoons Blue's Clues and South Park was originally made using construction paper and stop motion.

What´s construction paper?

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Lure of black money scam

In the first of three reports on the murky world of electronic fraud, Go Digital's Tracey Logan investigates the "black money" scam.

The cash is supposedly dyed black to get through customs

It was 2 November 1999 when an American executive wired the sum of $742,000 dollars into a business account in the name of H Nsakala. This should have been the last he saw of his money.

Nobody knows how many experienced businessmen fall for the offer of a cool million or two, by e-mailers announcing themselves as corrupt Nigerian businessmen.


But by the time police get involved, victims have usually lost, not gained, more than £250,000, much borrowed from friends, families and even employees.

In the past 12 months, 15 cases have come to light in the City of London, a financial district measuring just one square mile.


These advance-fee frauds are also known as "419 scams", named after the section of the West African country's criminal code that prohibits fraud.

Long sentence

Across the capital, police have investigated over 100 similar crimes. But, because of their complex, international web of deceit, the criminals are hard to track down and, in most cases, victims will never see their money again.

The credit card proved vital in the investigation

So Detective Inspector Barry Bryan of the City of London Police Fraud Squad, could not believe his eyes last year when he spotted a Gold Visa card, bearing a photo of its owner, in the name of H Nsakala.

He told the BBC's Go Digital that proved to be a vital, evidential link, to an account in the same name used to defraud three businessmen in America, Hong Kong and Holland, out of a total $4.3 million dollars.

The bearer's real name is Monsuro Adeko, and police found him in possession of 162 credit and debit cards, 15 birth certificates, 38 driving licences and 22 British and Dutch passports.

Now serving nine years, the longest sentence ever obtained by the Fraud Squad, Adeko was convicted of multiple counts of conspiracy to defraud, forgery and counterfeiting.

Best of all for the victims, the judge ordered Adeko and his wife, also in prison for money laundering, to pay £948,582 in compensation to his victims.

Police seized their family home in Essex and a bond valued at £500,000 so victims will see most of their money again.

In a bizarre twist, one of the three businessmen had begun to think the fraudsters would finally deliver the promised millions.

But this was just another con, well known to police around the world as the black money scam.

Money for nothing

It is con that affects Norwegians in particular and, at a police convention last year, they demonstrated how it works.

If an offer looks too good to be true then it generally is. If you can't afford to lose the money then don't get involved

DCI Kevin Moore, City of London Police
The victim is told their money is waiting for them in a foreign country, such as Germany. On arrival, they meet their contact who opens a briefcase filled with black wads of paper.

These are $100 bills, according to the fraudster, dyed black to evade customs in their country of origin, usually somewhere in West Africa.

The victim watches as a black note from the case is sprayed with special chemical and, by sleight of hand, a $100 bill is produced.

A payment of just $50,000 will secure enough of the chemical to clean up the cash in the case.

"Of course, it's just water" said Detective Chief Inspector Kevin Moore of the City of London police, "and the black notes just worthless pieces of paper".

The best thing, say the police, is not to reply to any e-mails offering money for virtually nothing.

This could lead not only to a loss of funds, but a criminal prosecution for money laundering if you suspect the money might be the result of criminal activities.

"If an offer looks too good to be true then it generally is," said DCI Moore.
"If you can't afford to lose the money then don't get involved."

You can hear more about electronic scams and fraud on this week's Go Digital on the BBC World Service.
news.bbc.co.uk
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