Two men have been each imprisoned for nine months after pleading guilty to defrauding a man through what is called a black money scam.

The scam involves con artists who attempt to obtain money from a victim by persuading him or her that piles of banknote-sized paper is really money which has been dyed black or another colour so as to not be detected by Custom. The victim is persuaded to pay for chemicals to wash the “money” with a promise that he will share in the proceeds.

The two men, Marceling Kamwa, 37 and Jean Jacques Tinetcheu, 40, both from Cameroon, defrauded a man by giving him €50,000 of fake cash in exchange for his Hummer foul-wheel drive.  The pair demonstrated washing off the blake dye using a genuine €50 note. It was this man who informed police inspector Jonathan Ferris of the case, and following inspections, the two men were found preparing the false money in a hotel in Sliema.

A few months ago, two other men, also from Cameroon, were also charged with an attempted fraud through the black money scam.