Taiwan News
Date: 2016-08-22
By: Central News Agency
A foreign man was arrested last week for pulling a “black money” scam, in which the suspect tried to obtain money from a victim by convincing her to help clean a pile of blackened cash, police from Chiayi County said Monday.
The police said they have recently received a report from a woman, who said that an American national she met on the Internet, identified only as Richards, had been pushing her to donate money to help children in poor countries.
Police found that the man had used a scheme commonly known as the “black money” scam, in which victims are persuaded to purchase special chemicals to help remove black ink from a pile of cash, often with the promise of a share of the proceeds.
The woman, surnamed Chen, said when she met Richards in Chiayi, the suspect pulled out a pile of black banknote-sized paper from his suitcase and used a “magic solution” to clean off the black coating from the paper, which instantly transformed into U.S. dollar bills, according to the police.
Richards told Chen that the blackened cash was smuggled out from war-torn countries because he was not allowed to carry the original cash overseas. He then borrowed US$8,000 from Chen, and another US$25,000 from her later, to purchase more “magic solution,” saying the cash will be used to fund poor children in war-torn countries, the police said. [FULL STORY]