It sounds far-fetched, a little too good to be true – and in fact it was just a scam. A 42-year-old tried to force counterfeit money on his victims with a dubious story. Black-colored banknotes need to be cleaned by a dry cleaner – but for this so-called conversion process to work, real banknotes are needed…
Specifically, the suspect from Cameroon pretended to work in an embassy. As a result, he had access to a large amount of black-colored banknotes, as he led his potential victims to believe. He demanded five-figure sums of money with a tantalizing promise: After the clean-up, the victims would get more money back than they had made available.
“Really need money for dry cleaning”
Why did he need money at all? “The suspect has told stakeholders that he really needed money for this dry cleaning business, otherwise this process could not be carried out,” said police spokesman Philipp Haßlinger on Monday.
Of course, the alleged fraudster had nothing to give away. Instead, he wanted to use the so-called “conversion process” to exchange the real money for “flowers” and then plant them on his victims.
12,000 “blossoms” seized
During one of the transfers, detectives from the Staatsrecherche and Cobra managed to arrest the alleged perpetrator in Vienna in May. He is now in custody. The suspect was in possession of counterfeit money and a counterfeit passport. In several house searches, a total of 12,000 counterfeit banknotes – with a nominal value of 1.5 million euros – were seized.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
