A foreign man was arrested last week for an alleged “black money” scam, in which the suspect allegedly tried to obtain money from a target by convincing her to help clean a pile of cash, Chiayi County police said on Monday.
Police said they received a report from a woman who said that a US national she met on the Internet, identified only as Richards, had been pushing her to donate money to help children in poor countries.
Police said that the man was using a scheme commonly known as a “black money” scam, in which people are asked to purchase special chemicals to help remove black ink from what they pass off as a large amount of banknotes, often with the promise of a share of the proceeds.
The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), said that when she met Richards in Chiayi, the suspect pulled black, banknote-sized pieces of paper from a suitcase and used a “magic solution” to clean some of them, revealing US dollar bills, according to police.
Richards told Chen that the supposed cash was smuggled out of war-torn countries, police said.
He borrowed US$8,000 from Chen and another US$25,000 from her later to purchase more “magic solution,” saying the cleaned bills would be donated to charities working for poor children in war-torn countries, police said.
Chiayi police said that “black money” scammers usually use iodine and starch to blacken a few banknotes and use a vitamin C solution to clean them.
Authorities questioned Richards before prosecutors banned him from leaving the country.
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