Money-changer or Money-scammer?

When you come to Indonesia, one of the most important things to do is to change your money into ours in the Money-changer for doing transaction.
Some famous, high end places accept foreign currencies, but generally Dollar, Australian Dollar, Pound sterling, Euros, Yen, Won, you name it, have to be changed into IDR or what Indonesian called “Rupiah”.

The pictures below are the Rupiah coins and bills. For the coins, the mostly used are the IDR 500 (US $0.05) and IDR 1.000 (US $ 0.10), while the mostly used bills are the red one of IDR 100.000 (US $ 9.70) and the blue one of IDR 50.000 (US $4.85).

Rupiah coins

Rupiah bills

You must get really familiar with the Indonesian currency, because often people get confused to see the numbers and doing maths in their heads to count the money rate, which is as of the date, the money rate determines that you can get IDR 9.700 for US $1.

Ironically, Bali, the most visited exotic tourist destination, and of course other places in Indonesia, is not clean of scammer. They are lurking in daylight and night time, 24/7, targeting unfamiliar and unexperienced tourists. They are the Money-changer themselves.

Money-changer / scammer 1

Money-changer / scammer 2

Money-changer / scammer 3

Money-changer / scammer 4

The Money-changer, the place that should be the ‘cleanest’, free of scam, is actually the place with the most scammer. They utilize the tourist’s need to change the money currency and guide them to their trap by the words like “Authorized” and “No Commision”. The scam is to sneakily take the money when the Money-changer guy is counting the money.

Solution? Choose the better, legal place like the ones in the airport if you don’t want to risk losing money.
Or, if you have to change your money in one of them, observe closely and carefully, don’t fall to decoy or misdirection, and count the money all over and over again.

(See this video below about the Money-scammer or fraud in Bali done by the what-so-called “Authorized” Money-changer)

(Credits go respectfully to the rightful owner)