Vietnamese Man Loses 35,000 Dollars In scam In Norway

A Vietnamese man in Norway lost around 35,000 dollars after
he was led to believe that mixing the cash with a special liquid would double
its value, Norwegian media report.
    A 32-year-old Frenchman is set to stand trial in a lower court
near Oslo next week on charges that he cheated a gullible Vietnamese man out of
180,000 kroner (35,00 dollars, 23,000 euros) 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”, police
officer Ragnar Ingberg told RB.
    On March 3, the Frenchman was arrested while trying to leave
the country with nearly 200,000 kroner in his possession.
    The man’s defence lawyer, Jan Schjatvet, told RB his client
had come to Norway to find used cars in mint condition to sell in Africa, and
that he was flabbergasted at the charges against him.
    “He is extremely surprised to be charged with something
that is so incredible. This sounds completely crazy”, he told the paper.