Foreign currency counterfeiting gangs inflict heavy losses on traders and money changers in Aden

English - Wednesday 10 August 2022 الساعة 04:21 pm
Aden, NewsYemen, Jalal Muhammad:

The war that Yemen has been witnessing for seven years has had catastrophic results on various economic, living and service sectors in various Yemeni governorates.

Since the Houthi militia - the Iranian arm in Yemen - took control of the phenomenon of looting and crime, despair and frustration exacerbated, as a result of the deteriorating economic conditions and the collapse of the national currency, which affected the purchasing power of the Yemeni citizen, especially in the southern governorates, which are witnessing a crazy rise in foreign exchange rates against  The Yemeni riyal is the result of a number of factors, foremost of which is the policy of "financial separation" applied by the Houthi militia towards the "cash currency" printed by the legitimate government.

All of these factors prompted currency counterfeiting gangs and war merchants to expand and spread their businesses, taking advantage of the chaos that has prevailed in the country for more than seven years, and exploiting the citizen's need for foreign currencies after the collapse of living conditions that hit Yemen and the exacerbation of poverty and destitution, the rise in prices and the state of vibration that it is exposed to.  It has Yemeni government agencies.

A number of money exchange company owners in the capital, Aden, complain about the increasing attempts to pass counterfeit "$100" coins, which have spread in an unprecedented manner and caused merchants to incur heavy losses.

An administrative official in one of the branches of the exchange companies in the Sheikh Othman district says, “ (3 to 15) people are discovered per month, among their foreign money is a forged currency and is often in the category of (100) US dollars, and when the forgery is discovered, the customer claims that  Received it from a cashier or merchant, and the person always withdraws immediately when confronted with the counterfeit currency, some of them take it and leave, and some give flimsy excuses, but others actually fall into the trap of deception, because the general public cannot differentiate between the real currency and the counterfeit, and most of the victims are from a category  Businessmen, shop owners, and those who deal in foreign currency.

But banking experts confirm that the original dollar can be distinguished from the counterfeit, no matter how elaborately manufactured it is, explaining that there are distinguishing marks that are difficult to reverse on the counterfeit editions.

There are several ways to detect the truth of the currency, and the easiest way is to test the touch, because the characteristics of the original dollar are softness, which is made of linen and cotton, while the counterfeit is made of cardboard, which is usually made from some components of wood.

Although money exchange shops know various ways to detect counterfeit currency, they are forced to accept counterfeiters, because those who exchange it are armed young men who are fully prepared to commit any crime in order to exchange what they have in their possession and not be arrested.

Money changers and merchants agreed that the security of Aden and the central bank in the capital, Aden, should take strict measures to curb such behaviors to curb them before they turn into a phenomenon that led to the loss of merchants and citizens alike.