Be Wary of This 'Can't Lose' Proposition

Illustration by: Janice Dorn

Readers have been asking about the outlook for the Iraqi dinar.

The short answer: not good, in every sense of the word.

For several weeks I have been getting questions about the outlook for the Iraqi dinar.

The currency is hardly run of the mill, so it was odd to see that much interest.

Now a new warning from the Connecticut Better Business Bureau suggests a possible reason:

"Better Business Bureau is warning consumers across the United States and Canada to be wary when considering any foreign currency investment, particularly the Iraqi dinar. BBB fields a growing number of complaints about dinar investments from around the world, including military personnel claiming they were victims of dinar dealing fraud.

Consumer complaints against currency exchange companies allege they paid for but never received their dinars, that they had been sent Iraqi bank notes with duplicate serial numbers and that companies made misleading statements on their websites about the profit potential of dinar currency investments. Both BBB and consumers discovered several Iraqi dinar currency sellers disappeared in the wake of consumer complaints or refused to return telephone calls or answer letters."

Here's the full text of the warning.

Perhaps the worst part of this is that problems with the dinar aren't new. The Connecticut bureau published a similar warning on the currency in 2007.

The bottom line: investment propositions like these are almost always trouble. Be careful. Really.

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