The three men arrested by the Guardia Civil were being searched for after a businessman in Palmanova in Majorca went to the police claiming he had been conned out of 150,000 euros. The businessman, a promoter in the construction industry, was approached by the men who claimed that due to political instability in their own country they had a large quantity of money they wanted to invest in construction here in Spain and offering him 40% of any profits from their investment. His interest won they then went on to tell him they could make money by putting banknotes through a process involving special liquids and demonstrated it to him with one 100 euro and one 200 euro banknote provided by the victim.
As a result of the demonstration the money was ‘doubled’ and the fraudsters gave the victim the resulting notes so he could test their legality. They also showed him a case they said contained 3 to 4 million euros. The victim was told the liquids to convert all the money would cost 500,000 euros and, thinking he was in a position to barter, the victim offered 150,000. At a later meeting the conmen and their victim met up again to ‘copy’ all the money by wrapping it in aluminium foil packages, the victim was sent out to the pharmacy to buy a syringe for injecting the magic liquid into the packets, and the conmen did the switch. With all the money packaged and injected with the liquid the victim was told it would take ten hours to work and the conmen went back to their hotel for the night. The next day when the victim went to collect the fraudsters he discovered they had disappeared; suspicions aroused he checked the foil packets of money and discovered nothing but wet paper.
The men arrested were said to be working on a similar con with three businessmen in Almeria at the time of their arrest.
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