Dubai: Money-doubling fraud by ‘sorcery’, credit card fraud, circulation of counterfeit money and forged cheques were among 113 cases of financial fraud unearthed by Dubai Police in the in the first five months of the year.
These scams involved Dh609 million, according to a report by Dubai Police’s Anti-Economic Crime Department.
The police arrested 180 criminals that were involved in these crimes, said Colonel Abdullah Rashid, Director of the Anti-Economic Crime Department at the CID.
Crimes that involved commercial fraud, piracy and stealing intellectual property amounted to over Dh8.4 million, the report said.
Cases involving fraud and swindling amounted to over Dh32.4 million, the report said.
Major General Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, Assistant to Dubai Police Chief for Criminal Investigation Affairs, said that Dubai Police puts great efforts into the fight against economic crimes and works. “There is a decrease in the number of economic crimes in general,” he said. However, he pointed out that the decrease is because criminals now commit their economic crimes on the computer and through the internet, which is considered cyber-crime and is handled by another department.”
Fake gold nuggets
Recently, the department arrested two African men who were trying to sell fake gold nuggets, Col Rashid said.
The two men, T.M.K., 52 and K.N.M, 43, claimed they had gold nuggets worth Dh6 million that they got from their country and that they wanted to sell.
Col Rashid said the gold nuggets were nothing but small pebbles and stones that were painted with gold paint.
The Anti-Economic Crime Department got a tip about the men and planned a sting operation where police officers pretended they were gold dealers from a GCC country who were interested in buying the nuggets.
They met T.M.K. at a shopping mall the first time and he showed them samples of the alleged gold. The police officers haggled over the price so T.M.K. would not get suspicious. They then agreed to meet later at a hotel room that T.M.K. will rent out, to complete the transaction.
The police camped out in the room opposite the one T.M.K rented, and when the undercover-police officers and T.M.K met, they arrested T.M.K and confiscated the gold.
T.M.K. confessed to the crime. The police got to know where he was staying, which was at a hotel in Dubai, and raided the place. They found the rest of the gold and his partner K.N.M. and he was arrested.
The two men were not residents of Dubai but had come here on tourist visas.
