Police warn residents about dollar syndicate

Police warn residents about dollar syndicate

JAKARTA (JP): An accountant reported to the police on
Wednesday that he had been duped into handing over more than
US$95,000 to a foreigner, who had previously succeeded in
apparently doubling up $500 handed over by the accountant to
$1,000.

The victim, who requested anonymity, told The Jakarta Post at
Jakarta Police headquarters that he was introduced to the
foreigner, Kino (not his real name), by a friend. On Monday, Kino
took him to his hotel room in Central Jakarta, where he handed
over $500.

"Right in front of my very eyes, he placed each of the real
banknotes on top of his special notes which were still blank ...
he placed one on top of the other," the 36-year-old accountant
said.

The blank notes, the accountant said, were totally white in
color but if they were run through a scanner, a U.S. dollar
banknote would be clearly visible.

"He used a special black dye ... it looked like your common
Betadine antiseptic but smelled strongly of ammonia, and poured
it over all the notes ... my real notes and his blank ones. When
it dried, he dipped cotton into another liquid and rubbed off the
dye from the real and the fake notes."

"This con artist gave me all of the notes and told me to get
them changed into rupiah at any money changer."

The accountant said that he went to a reputable money changer,
and was amazed when the teller, after scanning the dollars, said
that they were "all good" and paid him their rupiah equivalent.

On Tuesday, the accountant booked a room under his own name at
the hotel Kino was staying in. He invited Kino to his room and
handed over $95,000 to be doubled up by the foreigner.

"But this time, Kino said he would carry out the process in
the hotel room's bathroom, as it involved a lot of money and the
ammonia smell would be a real bother," the accountant explained.

He said Kino told him that by Wednesday morning everything
would be ready, but by Wednesday morning he was gone.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam warned
local residents against such crimes perpetrated by foreigners
against city residents eager to get rich quick.

He said that the foreigners, most of whom reportedly come from
African countries, were taking advantage of the gullibility of
city residents and fluctuations in the value of the rupiah
against the U.S. dollar to set up dollar-swindling syndicates
here.

Detectives explained that what the crooks actually did was to
place authentic, large denomination dollar bills at certain
intervals in wads of dollar-sized pieces of paper that were dyed
black using a chemical substance.

When trying to hook their victim, the con men normally removed
the original dollars from the pile and rubbed the dye off to
convince their marks of the authenticity of the money.

Victims of similar scams, mostly currency traders and people
in the medium- and upper-income brackets, have come forward in
Jakarta, Surabaya and Medan. (ylt)