The Dubai Misdemeanour Court sentenced a GCC blogger to three months in jail in absentia for conspiring with an Asian lady to trick one of her followers and seize AED 153,000 from him.
The suspect duped the victim by offering to sell a high-end automobile for an attractive price. The court punished the blogger with a fine of AED 153,000 and the Asian woman with AED 10,000.
The circumstances of the case go back to an earlier time when a person filed a report alleging that he had been cheated by a GCC girl working in the social media advertising field.
According to the complainant’s statement during the interrogations, he knew the suspect through her “Snapchat” platform and was one of her followers. He reportedly found an ad by her displaying expensive automobiles belonging to a prominent figure for sale at discounted prices.
During the interrogation, the complainant stated that he contacted the suspect to purchase the vehicle, so she gave him a bank account number that she claimed belonged to the vehicle owner’s secretary and asked him to transfer AED 153,000 to book the vehicle and ensure that he would obtain it. And then he transferred the money to the account she gave.
Later, when the GCC woman delayed and failed to answer her phone, he realised he had been duped and filed a police case.
According to the case file, the complainant submitted the money transfer receipts, chats between him and the GCC suspect, as well as the account number used in the fraud, which helped to identify the GCC suspect and the other female, who denied the accusation.
The Asian girl agreed to receive the money through her account and hand it over to the GCC partner at her request, unaware that the money was the product of a scam.
The Dubai Public Prosecution accused the GCC lady of fraudulently stealing the complainant’s money and the Asian woman of holding the proceeds of fraud.
