HANOI, Vietnam – Two Cameroonian men, Armand Willy Asse, 52, and Nanga Onguene Xavier, 35, were arrested in Hanoi’s Tay Ho District for defrauding a Vietnamese man of VND548 million (approximately US$21,557) through a fraudulent “dollar cleaning” scam. The pair posed as investors from France and targeted a 41-year-old man from Ninh Binh Province, claiming they could “clean” blackened dollar bills using special chemicals.
The scammers invited the victim to several meetings in luxury hotels and even visited his farm in Ninh Binh under the pretense of inspecting potential business opportunities. On November 30, they invited him to a hotel where they produced stacks of blackened dollar bills and explained that the money had been intentionally blackened to evade detection by airport customs.
They told the victim that to “clean” the blackened dollars, they needed VND500,000 banknotes, which contained a rare chemical, “red mercury.” According to the fraudsters, the chemical reaction between the Vietnamese banknotes and the blackened dollars would restore the bills to their original state.
The scammers demonstrated their “cleaning process” by sprinkling a powder, resembling flour, on both the Vietnamese and dollar notes, followed by soaking them in a liquid mixture. Within minutes, they claimed the bills were restored to their original condition. They promised the victim a 15% share of the cleaned dollars in return for lending them Vietnamese money to use in the process.
Convinced, the victim handed over VND550 million to the scammers. However, the pair took the money and fled, leaving behind a modified shoe-polishing machine with a hair dryer inside to distract the victim. The victim realized he had been scammed only two hours later when he opened the box to find the money gone, with the hair dryer still running.
Police later arrested the two men and found US$6,400 and VND43 million in their possession. Upon interrogation, they admitted that the dollar bills they had brought to Vietnam had been coated with chemicals that could easily be washed off with soap. Despite the scam being well-known, authorities say the victim’s greed led him to fall for the scheme.
This case highlights the continuing risk of scams involving fake investment opportunities and fraudulent “cleaning” methods that exploit people’s desire for quick financial gains.
