Currency Validation and Verification

Currency validation in Africa is vital. Whether you're working in US Dollars, British Pounds, or Euros we are able to offer specialized validation and verification services to protect your interests and transaction. At any given time, up to 20% of the Foreign currencies in regular circulation in most African nations are counterfeit. Currency is not routinely checked with any sophisticated equipment, with most money changers and even banks utilizing low-end Chinese money-counters that have limited security features and which, unsurprisingly, never detect Chinese counterfeit currency. Even after currency has been checked by money changers or financial institutions, we have found that 2-10% of the currency remains routinely counterfeit; with no means of detection outside of repatriation to a major banking institution in a first world country, this currency continues to exchange hands and be used for daily activities. These numbers do not even account for the proliferation of scams that specifically utilized counterfeit currency for malicious purposes. It is absolutely vital for the success of any transaction that your currency be properly validated and verified.

Our staff are trained to sort and identify counterfeit currency from legitimate both through specialized training and the use of advanced computer forensic equipment. Any member of our staff who works with currency has been trained, through visual and tactile identification, to determine if the currency they are handling is counterfeit; this allows for a low risk method of examination that does not bring any undue risk or danger into a situation where you may be dealing with scammers or bad actors. If currency fails visual and tactile examination it is possible to alert to the problem and excuse ourselves from the situation before things may turn dangerous or violent. After visual inspection, we then move to our full complement of restricted counterfeit detection tools at our disposal. We are able to check, verify, and digitally record the serial numbers and images of all of the currency that is processed by our machines. When we are able to perform the full range of scanning and serial number verification we are able to certify and guarantee that your currency is genuine. Serial numbers can be checked against the Treasury Database to ensure that serial numbers are proper and not flagged for counterfeit activities. Our specialized machines use a variety of restricted detection methods to test currency in a dozen different metrics, ranging from normal light, uv light, thermal, magnetic, and beyond. We are also able to have full digital records of every bill that is checked with our machines, which can be exported into searchable files for follow-up or forensic analysis.

There is no downside to you, as the Client, in hiring our company for your currency verification and validation. We have protected our clients from a combined loss of hundreds of millions of dollars over the past ten years by identifying and alerting them to counterfeit currency and scams. When the cost of hiring our specialists is compared to the cost of loss on even a single deal it becomes the smart economic choice to hire us to assist you with your currency needs. Any single transaction where you accept counterfeit currency will accumulate multiple times more loss than the fee for having a currency specialist in the field with you. Given the size of most gold or other transactions in Africa, we have found that our clients can hire us an average of eight to ten times and still save money in paying our fees versus taking a single loss to counterfeit currency. Whether you have a one-time transaction, or ongoing business in Africa, South America, or the Middle East, hiring a currency specialist will always be more affordable than taking even a small loss.

Currency Transactions

We are able to provide currency validation for any currency transaction ranging from small table top closings to full palletized currency deals. There is no transaction involving currency that is too small or too big for us to handle. We can provide one and two man validation teams for small transactions or we can provide up to eight validation teams all with their own equipment for deals involving large amounts of loose currency or palletized cash. Whether your transaction is involving currency exchange, conversion to crypto / USDT / BTC / Ethereum, or whether it is a deal that involves buying or selling gold, diamonds, or any other commodity in Africa, South America, or the Middle East for currency, we can provide a team that can assist you with your transaction.

We also provide currency validation, due diligence, and consulting teams. For a flat fee we will send a team to the location of your choice to examine your currency or evaluate your transaction that involves currency. This due diligence check will allow you to conduct your business with confidence that the currency you are dealing with or the situation that you are involved in are legitimate. There are untold amounts of currency scams in Africa, involving currency directly or the currency for an otherwise legitimate transaction, ranging from simple deceptions and advance fee scams all the way up to sophisticated, Broadway level performances that can involve dozens of people. Our company has the experience, education, and equipment to protect you from bad actors looking to steal your money. We have experienced every scam and variation of scam that Africa and the Middle East have to offer to the point where it is a scripted activity, and this depth of knowledge allows us to quickly identify and avoid situations that could cause you to lose money. One flat fee for our specialists to perform due diligence will protect you from almost any currency scam that the world has to offer.

Common Scams

-- Advance Fee Scam -- This scam is simple and everywhere, by far the most common scam across Africa and the Middle East. The scammers will pretend to have an asset whether it be gold or currency, and then they ask you for fees relating to the asset, such as viewing fees, transportation fees, storage fees, security fees, document fees, titling fees, etc. The part that always draws people in is that the asset is REAL! I cannot stress enough how often this allows them to be successful against their marks. They will absolutely show you real gold, real currency, real whatever and then they will ask you for money with no intention of ever doing a deal with you. This scam works because the money they ask you for is reasonable amounts, or "small" money compared to the size of the transaction, and because these scams piggy back on many real situations and transactions and they rely on that for the scam to make sense.

-- Black Money Scam -- This scam is an art form and usually will be accompanied with the greatest theatrical performance that you will see outside of a metropolitan production. This scam has a variety of options, but the general gist is that there is currency which has been dyed / stained / otherwise concealed in a black or dark ink either to hide it or to avoid customs or it belonged to some deposed dictator, etc. The story varies, but the result is the same, there is currency which has been dyed and they require either a special process or special chemical to remove the dye so that it will return to normal currency. They will then demonstrate this to you which usually involves the theatrical performance that I mentioned as they will take 6 or 8 100 Dollar bills and they will coat them in what amounts to superglue and they will then dye them black with iodine. Then, using simple Vitamin C powder and water they will "wash" the dye off of them revealing the currency underneath. The chemical is "caustic" so you will not be able to touch it immediately, they do this because if you picked up a bill that has been glued or otherwise laminated for this effect you would immediately realize something was wrong with it. They will "clean" it or "dilute it" with normal water and in the process of "drying" they will sleight of hand swap the treated bills with wet bills hidden in a towel or otherwise. They will present these bills to you and tell you to take them to a moneychanger to verify they're real. They will once again give you 600-800 dollars in real currency. Then they will ask you to pay for the very expensive chemical to treat the rest of the money and disappear.

-- Classic Currency Swap -- This scam will ask you to exchange currency, whether for other physical currency or more recently for cryptocurrency. You will be presented with real currency, which will be swapped out for either counterfeit currency or just stolen back from you as soon as you have transferred your funds or made them available to the scammers. Many times, they will not even use real currency and will instead present high quality counterfeit currency right from the beginning. This saves them having to swap or recover the real currency and the high quality counterfeits can be acquired for less than 30 cents on the dollar. Even with a healthy discount being given to the target of the scam, the scammers will double their money by giving you counterfeit currency. We have also seen circumstances where up to 30%-50% of counterfeit currency is mixed in with real currency to the same result. This allows the scammers to more than double whatever they have invested into the counterfeit currency

All of these scams, and more, can be avoided with the correct experience, training, and equipment. We have all three with over a decade of experience dealing with scams and scammers while evaluating and consulting on transactions. This experience allows us to give you a money-back guarantee that you will not be scammed if you hire our company for your currency transaction. We know these scams better than the scammers, and that allows us to separate out the problems from the real transactions; saving you money, saving you time, and making sure that your legitimate transactions move forward across the finish line. Why risk getting scammed when we will not only guarantee your money, but we will evaluate the situation for a fraction of the cost of even a small loss to scammers. Contact us, let us know your situation and circumstances, and let us develop a plan to assist with and protect your transaction!

We specialize in Africa in currency transactions involving Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire / Ivory Coast, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. In South America we specialize in Panama, Colombia, and Peru. In the Middle East we specialize in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.