A 48-year-old yoga teacher has been conned out of €220,000 after falling victim to an elaborate “wash-wash” fraud run by a man posing as a wealthy government official from Monaco, Le Parisien reports.
The fraudster, in reality a Cameroonian national living in Suresnes, allegedly convinced the woman that he could manufacture banknotes using a chemical process. Posing as a senior Congolese civil servant, he dazzled her with a demonstration: sandwiching a €50 note between two blank sheets, dipping them in a liquid solution, and producing three €50 notes.
Seduced both emotionally and financially, the woman soon handed over €100,000 with the promise it would be tripled. When no returns materialised, the conman claimed he needed further funds for a so-called “special cleaning procedure”, the notorious “wash-wash” method. Over the course of four months, she parted with a total of €220,000.
The deception unravelled when the victim finally alerted police. Officers arrested the suspect at his Paris home, later recovering €1,000 in cash and an Austin Mini from his address.
Investigators revealed the man was already known to authorities, with several fraud cases linked to his name and his details on the national wanted list. Despite this, he was released under judicial supervision pending trial after appearing in court on fraud charges.
The case has reignited concerns about the persistence of the “wash-wash” scam, a decades-old trick that preys on victims’ trust and promises of easy wealth.
