Member of Nigerian 'Black Dollar Scam' Gang Arrested in Lebanon

The Judicial Police has arrested a Nigerian member of a so-called “black dollar scam” gang that has fraudulently obtained money from a number of Lebanese victims.

“Following intensive investigations in the Bir al-Abed area, the Dahieh Judicial Police department managed to arrest on Tuesday night a member of a Nigerian gang operating outside Lebanon,” the Internal Security Forces said in a statement issued on Thursday.

The gang hooked “its Lebanese victims through the Internet by persuading them that black papers can be turned into $100 bills after washing off the black color through the use of a certain chemical substance,” the ISF said.

It identified the apprehended man as 40-year-old Nigerian citizen Fred Amah Ede.

According to the statement, he confessed to having arrived in Lebanon in February “along with a man called B. S., with the aim of handing 70-year-old Lebanese citizen H. B. a suitcase containing 'black dollars' in return for $15,000.”

The Nigeria-based gang communicated with the Lebanese man via the Internet, the statement noted.

“A box containing $100-bill-sized green and black papers, various counterfeit currencies and $4,500 was seized” in the possession of the detained Nigerian man, the ISF said.

“Efforts are underway to arrest the second culprit,” it added.

The famous black money scam, sometimes also known as the "black dollar scam" or "wash wash scam", is a scam where con artists attempt to fraudulently obtain money from a victim by persuading him or her that piles of banknote-sized paper in a trunk or a safe are real money which has been dyed black or another color.

The victim is persuaded to pay for chemicals to wash the "money" with a promise that he will share in the proceeds.

Y.R.