Dubai: Five victims filed complaints with Dubai Police this month after falling prey to a car buying scam that left them with worthless blank cheques.
Dubai Police arrested six Gulf and Asian nationals during investigations into the scam.
The scam involved buying cars from individuals who placed advertisements in newspapers, giving them stolen cheques that "are not worth a dime", said Brigadier Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, Director of the General Department for Criminal Investigations.
"For now these are the victims we were notified about, but there could be others out there who fell for the same scam — it could be any product, not necessarily cars.
"I urge them to come forward and inform us," said Lieutenant Colonel Ahmad Humaid Al Merri, Director of the Criminal Investigations Division of Dubai Police.
Most of the victims were European and Asian nationals who lost cars worth thousands of dirhams, he said.
He added that "the suspects knew how to trick their victims who were lured by great offers".
Lucrative sale
The suspects searched for car offers in newspapers and called the victims to arrange a lucrative offer.
"The suspects agreed to the first selling price, which fascinated the victims. They thought they were selling their cars for a higher selling price," he said.
The suspects would disguise themselves as representatives of a company and would finalise car registration formalities using fake documents.
Upon investigating the matter it was found that "the companies they represented did not exist", said Lieutenant Colonel Al Merri.
"The name printed on the cheques is ‘Mr Sherif Mohamed Shawky' or ‘Mr Sherif Mohamed Shawky Hassanein'. According to our records this person left the country two years ago," he said.
At this point in the investigation it has not been ascertained whether the name of the person printed on these cheques is an accomplice or not, Al Mansouri said.
"How can the victims fall for this scam? Simple precautionary measures could have prevented them from falling prey to this.
"They could have simply asked for documents to prove the identity of this person that has his name printed on the cheques," said Lieutenant Colonel Al Merri.
Some of the victims' cars were sold in the country and others were sold abroad, he said.
Police are working on retrieving the cars.
Al Merri said it is always better to use cash with car sales rather than cheques.
