Bahrain police arrest four in scam claiming they could turn paper into cash

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Police have busted a racket that swindled people out of big money by tricking them into believing they could turn ordinary paper into genuine legal tender by applying chemicals.

Police arrested four persons and are further investigating the case.

The head of the Capital Governorate Prosecution said they trapped the suspects based on a tip-off received by the Economic Crimes Control Department.

Investigations revealed that the quartet hoodwinked unsuspecting victims bitten by the get-rich-quick bug into thinking that they could use chemicals to turn papers into original currency notes.

The suspects confessed to their crimes when prosecutors confronted them with evidence proving their fraud.

This, however, is not the first time scammers have deluded people with such crazy ideas.

In a similar case reported earlier in Bahrain, the Interior Ministry has arrested a man - an African national- for cheating people by claiming that he could turn paper into cash.

Not the first time In a similar case reported by Indian police, suspects had used black iodide solution to coat genuine cash and then washed them with greenish-blue sodium thiosulphate or hypo that was once popular for developing photographs from negatives in the darkroom.

The gang would then convince customers to buy wads of currency note-shaped paper coated in black iodide and the chemical solution in a bottle.

A gang member would later bump into the buyer to damage the bottle as insurance against discovering the con and informing the police.

In another instance, a middle-aged Hongkonger lost HK$10 million (US$1.27 m) in a scam in which she transferred more than HK$8 m to buy a ‘special’ liquid chemical to recover blackened banknotes.

In “black money” scams, con artists typically tell their victims they have piles of black paper, claiming they are genuine banknotes dyed to avoid the detection of authorities in wartorn countries.

The victims are then coerced to buy expensive chemicals to remove the dye and usually promised a share of the recovered money