Man loses $123,200 to jobless Dubai trio in Facebook scam

Dubai - The three men have also been charged with faking a foreign currency that is in circulation.

Three Nigerian jobless men have been charged at a Dubai court with fraud after they duped a man of $123,200 (approx. Dh452,544)
The Court of First Instance heard how the three defendants, aged between 41 and 50, contacted the complainant on Facebook, claiming to him he had won a $27 million (Dh99 million) prize from a bank. They requested that he transferred $123,200 in installments as "fees to collect the prize".
They met him later in Dubai and showed him lots of packs of money of which they washed one bill that made him believe their claims and pay them the cash.
The three men have also been charged with faking a foreign currency that is in circulation. They faked $2 million and ?20,000.
The men have been all placed in detention.
They were arrested on February 6 this year. A case was registered at Al Rashidiya police station.
A police lieutenant said he arrested the main accused round 8.30pm on February 6 outside a hotel in Deira. "I apprehended his accomplice around 4pm in his place in Sharjah in connection with the case."
The lieutenant told the prosecutor that the Dubai Police anti-economic crimes department received a complaint from an Iraqi man in February. "He said that while in his country about five months back, he was contacted on Facebook by a person who told him he won a $27 million prize from a bank."
The Iraqi was then made to pay $123,200 upon the instructions of the suspect as "worth of the fees of the lawyer who would follow-up the matter".
"The complainant was asked to wire $42,000 and $50,000. He came later to Dubai and met them in Deira. He was shown large amounts of $100 bills. They washed a bill with a chemical substance in front of him telling him to take it to a bank to see that is valid. He was made to pay $6,200 for that liquid "with which all the bills needed to be washed"," the officer told the investigator.
When he was told to pay another $160,000 the next day on the pretext that the liquid was not sufficient, he realised he had fallen victim to fraudsters and reported them to the police.
The trial will continue on May 21.

mary@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai