2 Cameroon natives held for 'black dollars' fraud

Two Cameroon nationals allegedly used the black-dollar trick to cheat a man of Rs 30 lakh.

They were arrested while they came to collect a further Rs 10 lakh from the victim, police said on Thursday.

The black dollars scam involves fooling the victim into believing that a large sum of illegal dollars has been smuggled.

They are then cheated of money on the pretext that the cash is required to get the dollar note “cleaned”.

In this particular case, victim Narinder Pal was told by the two conmen that Rs 30 lakh worth of Indian currency notes in denomination of Rs 1,000 would be required to wash the ‘black dollars’.

To turn the dollars into legitimate currency, it needed to be washed with mercury that could be extracted from Indian currency notes, Natinder Pal was told by them.

Simplice Manfred and Roland Guiffo, both natives of Republic of Cameroon, had befriended Narinder Pal at a Paharganj hotel earlier this month.

They approached him 10 days ago with the offer claiming they had black dollars worth Rs 1 crore. Lending them Rs 30 lakh would earn him the principal amount as well as 25 per cent of the cleaned currency.

Narinder Pal fell in the trap and arranged the money. The foreigners, carrying a green bag and an aluminium box, met him at the same hotel on Sunday and collected the Indian currency from him, said police.

They then wrapped the cash in an aluminium foil and put it in the box they had brought along. They poured a chemical into the box and connected it to an electric socket.

Malfred then took the box to the bathroom and returned with a cloth-bound bundle which they handed over to Pal.

The victim was directed not to open the bundle for the next two days to prevent any damage to the currency notes.

“The accused then left the hotel claiming that they needed to purchase other chemicals that would be required to clean the dollars. They called Pal over phone later and demanded an additional Rs 10 lakh claiming that the chemicals were very expensive,” said police.

The demand did not go down well with the victim. To clear his suspicion, he opened the bundle and found only a bundle black paper inside.

He immediately approached Paharganj police and lodged a complaint.

Police told him to tell the suspects to meet at a designated place to collect the cash. The two were apprehended at that spot.

A raid was subsequently conducted at a hotel in Malviya Nagar where they were staying for the last few days. Police recovered US$ 19,400 from there.