EUROPE 
Liquid cash con leaves man limp
Sunday, 11 May, 2008
Foreign bank notes (AAP)
A man lost around $A37,660 after he was duped into believing that mixing the cash with a special liquid would double its value, Norwegian media reported.
A 32-year-old Frenchman is set to stand trial in a lower court near Oslo next week on charges he cheated a gullible Vietnamese man out of 180,000 kroner ($A37,660) earlier this year, local daily Romerikes Blad (RB) reported on its website.
The victim of the con, who was not identified, was reportedly told by the Frenchman to leave a mixture of real cash with blank bills to marinate in a special liquid overnight, and the next morning he would have double the amount of cash at his disposal.
But when he showed up the next morning to collect his prize, both the cash and the suspected con-artist, whose name was not revealed, had disappeared.
"He has given a statement that leads us to believe that he really believed this was possible. But we are of course having a hard time understanding how someone could actually believe such a tall tale," Ragnar Ingberg, a police officer in Romerike, near the Norwegian capital, says.
The Frenchman was arrested on March 3 while trying to leave the country from the Oslo airport with nearly 200,000 kroner ($A41,845) in his possession.
Source: AFP
A 32-year-old Frenchman is set to stand trial in a lower court near Oslo next week on charges he cheated a gullible Vietnamese man out of 180,000 kroner ($A37,660) earlier this year, local daily Romerikes Blad (RB) reported on its website.
The victim of the con, who was not identified, was reportedly told by the Frenchman to leave a mixture of real cash with blank bills to marinate in a special liquid overnight, and the next morning he would have double the amount of cash at his disposal.
But when he showed up the next morning to collect his prize, both the cash and the suspected con-artist, whose name was not revealed, had disappeared.
"He has given a statement that leads us to believe that he really believed this was possible. But we are of course having a hard time understanding how someone could actually believe such a tall tale," Ragnar Ingberg, a police officer in Romerike, near the Norwegian capital, says.
The Frenchman was arrested on March 3 while trying to leave the country from the Oslo airport with nearly 200,000 kroner ($A41,845) in his possession.
Source: AFP
