Highlights
- The woman took Dh350 and promised to return it soon
- She is not answering his calls and has even blocked his number.
- Such incidents can be reported to the police by calling the non-emergency hotline, 901.
A Pakistani expatriate, M. Siddiqui, who lives in Sharjah was scammed by a woman around two months ago. She took Dh350 from him and stopped answering his calls to return the money.
Siddiqui shared his experience after reading an earlier Gulf News Community Report, describing a similar incident.
He said: “It was around 4:30pm and I was just outside the building where I stay, in Sharjah. Suddenly a well-dressed woman, approached me. The woman spoke Punjabi and told me she was from Lahore in Pakistan.”
“She requested me to move to the side of the building because she wanted to talk, but avoid security guards. She said she worked with an interior design company, but was in financial trouble. She asked me if I could help her with some money and that she would pay me back. Feeling sorry for the country-woman, I decided to help her. As I opened my wallet, she peeped in and noticed I had a few hundreds. She requested me to give her more. I told her I had some payments to make and I could not spare too much. But, I ended up giving her Dh350. She took it and promised to pay me back.”
Siddiqui went up to his apartment in Al Qasba area, from the balcony he noticed that the woman was going into a small mall nearby.
A few days later, Siddiqui decided to call the woman to remind her to pay him back. She answered and said she will return his money soon and promised to call him back. He followed up, but she stopped answering his calls. Determined, Siddiqui tried from different numbers, but to no avail.
Eventually, he gave up.
After reading the Community Report, Siddiqui messaged the woman asking her to return the money or he will file a formal police complaint.
