Iran's Hamshahri newspaper said unsuspecting people had told police they had fallen for a scam which involved one man saying he was a self-employed taxi driver. He is alleged to have introduced passengers to a companion who said he was a businessman from Turkey buying gold from Tehran residents.
To make the whole scene more convincing, the companion spoke with a Turkish accent and showed a bunch of foreign bills he said were euros.
The victims of the purported fraud, mostly women, sold all the jewelry they were wearing for what they thought was "a good price", and it was not until they went to a bureau de change that they realized they held bills printed in the now non-existent U.S.S.R.
Police have compiled identikits of the two men.
