Dubai: Currency counterfeiting is a lucrative business. But only if you don’t get caught.
Here in Dubai though, the chances of that happening are pretty slim, as statistics reveal.
In the first eight months of this year alone, the Dubai Police Economic Crimes Department cracked 11 cases of currency counterfeiting, seizing millions of dirhams worth of forged bills that an official says could have damaged the local economy.
“In most cases, the forged banknotes are smuggled in from other countries,” Major General Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, Assistant to the Dubai Police Chief for Criminal Investigation Affairs told XPRESS. “The distributors usually approach businessmen and offer to sell the currencies for a price much lower than the official exchange rate. The forged currencies we come across the most are dirhams, US dollars and Indian rupees.”
Al Mansouri said the most recent case involved four Indians who offered to sell a business owner Rs4.7million for Dh140,000. “We apprehended the suspects after the business owner approached us,” he said. “We sent a few of the Rs1,000 notes to our laboratories. The quality of the forgery was unbelievable. Even a high-ranking official from the Indian Consulate could not differentiate it from authentic ones.”
According to the department’s statistics, there was an average of just over 21 cases per year in the last four years. “I think there has been a general decline in gangs attempting to smuggle and distribute forged notes in Dubai,” Al Mansouri said. “We have eyes and ears throughout the city to ensure these currencies don’t sneak into the market. They have the potential to damage the local economy, cause inflation, and even close some businesses down.”
Even though most tip-offs come from police sources, Al Mansouri said they also get reports from local exchange houses, taxi companies and grocery stores.
Al Mansouri said that whenever they come across forged notes, they notify the embassy of the concerned country.
He also asked people to contact the CID on toll free number 800-243 if they see something suspicious. “If anyone is approached by somene offering to sell bank-notes for less than the market price, then they are obviously fake,” he said.
