The black money scam, sometimes also known as the "black dollar scam" or "wash wash scam", is a scam where con artists attempt to fraudulently obtain money from a victim by convincing them that piles of banknote-sized paper are real currency that has been stained in a heist. The victim is persuaded to pay fees and purchase chemicals to remove the dye, with the promise of a share in the proceeds.
A Ghanaian native caught perpetrating the scam revealed the tricks of the trade to ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross.[1] Authentic US$100 bills are coated with a protective layer of glue, and then dipped into a solution of tincture of iodine.[2] The bill, when dried, looks and feels like black construction paper. The mass of notes are real construction paper; when the victim picks a "note" for cleaning, it is switched with the iodine-coated note. The "magic cleaning solution" is actually crushed vitamin C tablets dissolved in water. In another arrest, ordinary raspberry drink mix was found to be the "magic cleaning solution". Solutions of calcium hydroxide and magnesium hydroxide have also been used as washing agents in the scam.
February is Black History Month, and the MICDS community celebrated in a number of different ways, from events and discussions to presentations, productions, and potlucks. As always, the MICDS Black Student Union planned out many of the details and activities for the month-long celebration. After the past couple of years of smaller celebrations due to the pandemic, we were thrilled to celebrate this month with both small and large gatherings.
BSU members first held a Kickback and Kickoff event in the Taylor Hearth Room to give students the chance to mingle and hang out before an MICDS basketball game while enjoying beverages and snacks, and getting excited about the upcoming Black History Month events.
On Friday, February 24, MICDS iDentity Club students hosted the student-planned Diversity Leadership Conference on the MICDS campus. Twenty-five area schools took part in the day-long conference that was filled with engaging activities, games, a keynote by KSDK news anchor Michelle Li, and small group discussions.
Thank you to our BSU co-heads, students, faculty, staff, and the African American Support Committee for making Black History Month 2023 a very special one in highlighting Black currency and celebrating the Black community!
It does not seem to be illegal, at least there is no enforcement and on Calle Florida in Buenos Aires police officers and money exchangers are happily chatting away while attending to their respective business.
The driving factor here is that Argentina has rampant inflation. Hence most Argentinians want to turn the their Peso into dollars as quickly as possible. Since the government has severely limited the amount you can exchange at the official rate at a bank a "free market" for dollars has popped up. Argentinians want to buy dollars and so the rate is a matter of negotiation between the buyer and the seller as it would be for a shirt or a knickknack in the gift store.
It appears that larger purchases are quoted and negotiated in dollars. For example the price for real estate is always quoted and negotiated in dollar. I don't know how the actual payment works but in Argentina US cash is king, simply because it's much more stable than the local currency.
In that sense the money exchangers are really just brokers: they buy US$ from tourists and resell them at a profit to interested citizens. The average Argentinian doesn't have time or interest in standing on the a street all day yelling "Cambio, Cambio". That's the job the money changers get paid for. No drugs or other illegal activities involved.
Consider the situation between the German Democratic Republic, GDR, (which was the communist part of Germany during the the Cold War), and the Federal Republic of Germany, FRG, (the western part). The GDR had the Ostmark (Mark of the GDR), the FRG had the Deutschmark (German Mark). During the last years of the GDR, the official rate of Deutschmark to Ostmark for visitors was 1-1. Black market rates were around 1-5 to 1-10. That means:
Much of the black market exchanges were so informal that there was no real consideration of 'transaction fees' to fund the exchange. But people who wanted to earn money on the black market would try to buy low, sell high, in either direction.
Your premise is flawed. Black market exchanges don't get the local currency from official sources. They get it from locals who want to convert local currency to foreign currency (often US dollars,) as a hedge against devaluation. Locals will also convert the other way when they need to spend their dollars in the local currency.
A functional market balances supply and demand, and black market currency exchanges are no different; if there's not a enough supply of local currency the exchange rate will change until there is (and the same is true if the imbalance is in the other direction.)
Say the rate between Euros and Blokniks is officially 1:1 but most locals can't get Blokniks because the currency is not freely traded- there are capital controls, currency controls etc. The tourist who pays for official things must pay 10 Euros for something priced at 10 Blokniks (for example, a hotel room where that is controlled by the government).
So they go to the black market and buy (say) 100 Euro for 1000 Blokniks. Where do the Euros come from? The middleman will pay (say) 500 Blokniks for 100 Euros to a tourist. Their profit is thus 500 Blokniks. The tourist can buy a dinner at a restaurant for 1/5 of what they would otherwise pay.
In Argentina, dollar is used as a medium of savings, both because of idiosincrasy and because currency devaluates too fast and rates usually doesn't overcome that, or it is to risky to put money at fixed-term deposit.Black money exchange (which we epuphemistically call "blue") obtains his profit by charging a spread of course.
The source of local currency is people in search of savings, exchanging to buy real estate (such opeations are in USD) or for travel.The source of foreign currency is usually from people who need local currency to pay wages and is in need to leave some "savings" (It should be noted that there are significative unregistered job rates).
But, it would also be noted that aside of black market there is a "grey" market that is legal, which operates in stock exchange market (bolsa de buenos aires) in which bond titles can be freely purchased or selled both in local and foreign currency (USD). From these operation arises an implicit exchange rate, which has a similar gap with respect of the official rates that black market (sometimes higher, sometimes lower)
Again, this market need no dollar sources since it is operated between privates, However there is some degree of government intervention at cost of treasure USD to prevent that implicit rate go too high. These money is depositated in USD accounts of those who buy debt titles in local currency and sell in foreign currency at implicit rate.
The other answers are giving very good examples. However, in some "black" currency markets part of the economy is that the buyer gets less money than he thinks he gets. I.e. some bank notes are forged or even just photocopies or colored slips of paper.
If the value of a country's currency falls then imports get more expensive and exports get cheaper. If the value of a country's currency rises then imports get cheaper and exports get more expensive. Either of these changes can be problematic.
Hence governments manipulate their exchange rates. The most obvious way to do this is by participating in the currency exchange market themselves, buying or selling foreign currency to manipulate the price. However this technique has it's limits, a government can print and sell unlimited amounts of their own currency, but they can't sell foreign currency they don't have.
It is those restrictions which drive the rise of a black market. People want more foreign currency than the government will let them buy, either because they want to spend it abroad or because they don't trust the government not to destroy their capital with inflation*.
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Ethiopia has many unregulated foreign currency exchange bureaus. Profiteers use small shops, usually set up for lawful businesses like boutiques, from where they ask passers-by for foreign exchange. A US dollar is worth double the official bank rate on the black market.
Outflows are facilitated by vendors who either smuggle foreign currency collected in Addis Ababa through Bole International Airport, or transport it to Moyale and Togochale, towns on the border with Kenya and Somalia, a researcher told the ENACT project. Some foreign currency smuggled through these towns re-enters Ethiopia, only to be sent out again. Illicit traders approach bank officers in border towns with an offer to sell, or vice versa, according to a former federal prosecutor.
Banks in Moyale and Togochale process the foreign currency and disguise it as legitimately earned income from Ethiopian export businesses. A researcher said banks in border towns collaborate with their head offices in Addis Ababa, where someone buys the re-entered foreign currency at a higher price.
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