Several businesspersons in West Berbice have been tricked by two women who are being chauffeured in a white AT192 Carina and pose as legitimate customers but pay for items with counterfeit US currency.
Stabroek News learnt that the businesspersons lost thousands of dollars to the neatly dressed confidence tricksters who had the car waiting as they purchased items in bulk.
Among the areas they have roamed so far are Blairmont, Rosignol, Bath Settlement and Bush Lot. They also robbed persons at Mahaicony.
Contacted, a senior police officer in Berbice told Stabroek News that they have not received any report about the incidents and urged victims to come forward with information.
The women had reportedly visited a chicken vendor at Bush Lot and ordered a quantity of chicken. When it was time to pay, the women reportedly said that they did not have enough Guyana currency and wanted to pay the remainder in US dollars.
However upon handing over the money the women reportedly observed the man looking questioningly at it and they hurried out of his shop with the chicken.
Reports are that they told the man to “keep the change” until they went into the village to purchase fish.
However they never showed up for any change and by the time the man realized he was tricked it was too late.
Another woman of Bath Settlement who was robbed of $40,000 told this newspaper that she was busy carrying out her chores when the car stopped and the women asked her if she was selling chicken.
She responded in the negative and continued with her work. However the women insisted that she should “come down in the shop because they see something that they wanted.”
Glad for the “sale,” the woman said she went and they started to call for a large quantity of items. She said the women seemed “friendly” so she asked them what they were doing with all the “goods” and they responded that whenever they get their money they would stock up on groceries.
The women paid her US$200 and to top it off she gave them the difference in Guyana dollars.
She said the women’s ploy was so well planned that when she asked them questions about themselves they both had ready answers which she later discovered to be false.
They even mentioned names of persons living in the village she was acquainted with and said they were renting a house close to those persons.
She said even after the women left she had not realized that she had been tricked because they seemed so genuine.
It was not until a few days later while in the process of changing the money at Rosignol that the cambio dealers told her about the women.