Two arrests in Western Cape black dollar scam

A man complained to the police that he gave three Congolese men a large number of bank notes, believing they would convert them to dollars and multiply them, said Captain Frederick Van Wyk.

Two people were arrested for running a "black dollar scam" in Cape Town on Tuesday, said police.

A man complained to the police that he gave three Congolese men a large number of bank notes, believing they would convert them to dollars and multiply them, said Captain Frederick Van Wyk.

However, he was left with pieces of paper dyed black while they took his money, supposedly to buy the chemicals needed to wash the new "money", which they claimed had been dyed to avoid detection by customs officials.

Police found two men in Maitland in possession of blank pieces of paper used to trick people into participating in the scam, said Van Wyk.

The men, aged 28 and 41, were arrested and would appear in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on Thursday on fraud charges. The third man was still at large.