Police warn public of currency scam

AMMAN — Police on Saturday warned the public of a recent scam of what is known as the “black dollar”.

Police Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi said: “There is nothing called the black dollar that is less in price than the real dollar.”

“Anyone claiming this is a defrauder and we urge the public not to deal with such people and to report him/her to police,” Sartawi told The Jordan Times.

The police official’s announcement was made following the arrest of a foreign national who was attempting to sell people “black dollars” in return for fewer amounts of cash.

“We received a tip-off that a foreign individual was attempting to distribute the fake currency and we arrested him,” Sartawi said.

The suspect claimed that he can “change white paper into US currency”, Sartawi said.

The suspect was arrested without any major incident, according to a Public Security Department (PSD) statement.

Investigators found chemical substances, which they said were used in the alleged scam operation, the PSD statement added. 

The suspect was referred to the concerned authorities for further questioning and indictment, the statement added.   

Over the past decade, several suspects were arrested in Jordan in connection with what the authorities have dubbed the “black dollar” scam.

The operation entails showing the victim a black currency note, usually a “black dollar”, which would then be placed in a special chemical substance and transformed into a clean currency note, according to officials who were involved in past arrests of suspects over similar scams.

The suspects usually use “visual tricks”, such as substituting a black dollar with a real dollar covered in black paint, to convince their victims that the substance actually works. 

The suspects would trick their victims by collecting large amounts of money “to buy expensive chemicals that would return the currency to its original condition”, officials have told The Jordan Times in recent interviews.

Once the fraudsters received the money they would disappear, according to officials.