Black Money Washing Scam Plagues Naïve
Get ready to cringe. The Nigerians really have cornered the market on scamming the unsuspecting. In business, if they were to have a niche’ their clientele are the extremely naïve, very gullible and stupidly vulnerable.
Florida seems to be their stop off point in the US as many “419” scams begin and end in Florida. I think part of the reason is the immense elder population. And when you have millions of older people with connections to the Internet, something bad is bound to happen due to their inexperience with the medium.
“In March the Lee County Sheriff’s Office Highway Interdiction Unit conducted a routine traffic stop and found $20,800 in cash, black construction paper the size of dollar bills, several bottles of commonly known substances and a list of ingredients necessary to complete the “Black Wash/ Money Washing” scam.”
Honestly, I’d never heard of this one until recently, which would make me a target too!
Here’s the scam:
Scammers send thousands of phish emails regarding an unknown inheritance. Ok right there should be a red flag. But, for many who think their ship has come in, it’s opportunity. Unfortunately.
Once engaged the victim is told of the mass amounts of money needing to be snuck in/out of the country and it is dyed black to avoid detection by custom officials. OMG.
Once a meeting is arranged the victim is shown a trunk full of dyed black money, then to whet the appetite of the victims a few of the bills are pulled out and a magic solution cleans off a few nice crisp $100.00 bills. The victim now frothing at the mouth wants more.
The ruse is to get the victim to buy thousands of dollars of this magic cleaning solution for the promise of making hundreds of thousands of dollars. WOW.
Like a bait and switch shell game or 3 cards Monte, there is a bit of entertainment value in this scam and anyone who enjoys watching a stupid show like the Bachelor can get taken. Beware.
Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing scammers and thieves on The Big Idea with Donnie Deutsch.
