Everyone would like to think that at some point in their lives a money tree will rain bills upon their heads and solve all their financial woes. Unfortunately, as they go through life they realize that the odds of that happening are nil and none. The Wash Wash ripoff is a relatively new ripoff and uses misdirection combined with technology of a virtuoso level to accomplish this and lure in victims.
This scam is very similar to the advanced fee fraud except that there is actually a trunk of “money” which is used as an enticement. The mechanics of the ripoff are relatively simple and yet devious, a mark is identified and contacted in some fashion and then convinced there is a container of real money and a few genuine bills are shown in their demonstration to further reel in the victim.
The money is black in color, and the conman tells the victim the dye is for avoidance of tax payments. The money has been turned black through a combination of raspberry Kool-Aid, iodine and white glue, as interviews with apprehended con artists have revealed.
There are several real bills treated in the same way and the rest of the container will be full of black construction paper, to convince the victim they are asked to choose a random bill to “restore” which is actually a genuine note the con artist has palmed and changes out for the randomly chosen piece of construction paper. The palmed cash that was cleverly switched is then treated with a simple solution that removes the coloring and the victim is thereby convinced the entire trunk is full of genuine bank notes.
Marks are originally contacted via email after thousands or millions of memos have been sent to accounts found through either hacking of user accounts or by contacting accounts randomly. cell-registry.com/802/879/
Just as in the advanced fee scam, money will be requested in order to cover initial costs such as bribes, shipping fees, etc. This will go on with different reasons as long as the mark is willing to pay. The next step of this ripoff is to hook the mark further by having them sign a document stating they know they are doing something illegal such as accepting money acquired by drug dealing or theft, or an intent to avoid taxes, this is only done when the victim seems to be catching on and this is also the time when the “proof” will be presented and the victim shown how the cash is real using the fake bill switch.
All sorts of new scams take time for people to catch on, which is what makes scams so lucrative when they first begin, for the con man at least. On the other hand, regardless of whether or not the mark gets to keep the case in which the funds are said to exist, you have to keep in mind that you’re being conned and you’ll eventually just get robbed of all the money that you possess. An indicator would be if told not to open it as exposure to air will prevent a reversal of the dye process.
Like I wrote before, people have sent reports to the police about how they were conned in these Black Money Scams, leading to arrests. Despite your embarrassment at being conned so easily, it’s worth it to inform the authorities, if only to prevent this same kind of fraud from happening to anyone else.
