Dubai: A manager has been jailed for one year for cheating a woman of Dh21,000 after deceitfully convincing her that she had won Dh200,000 cash prize from du.
The Russian received an SMS followed by a phone call from someone who told her he was from du and that her number won a grand prize of Dh200,000 in September 2017.
The Russian, who fell for the trick, was told to pay Dh21,000 as tax in order to claim her prize.
She paid the ‘tax’ in phone credits and made instant cash transfer before realising she had become a victim of phone scam.
On Tuesday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the 26-year-old Pakistani defendant of using someone else’s Emirates ID when he went to collect the transfer, swindling and embezzling the Russian’s money.
Court records said the accused abetted two suspects, who remain at large, in tricking the employee and embezzling her Dh21,000.
Presiding judge Mohammad Jamal said the accused, who pleaded not guilty, will be deported.
“I used the Emirates ID, but I did not swindle the claimant or embezzle her money,” he told the court.
The Russian said she fell for the caller once she was notified about her name and work address.
“The caller said I should pay them Dh21,000 in tax fees to be able to claim my Dh200,000 prize. He gave me a man’s name and said I should transfer the fees to that person. He said that the transfer should be in the form of phone credit. I sent them Dh12,500 and Dh2,000 in instant cash transfer and the remainder in phone credit. Later I discovered that I had been duped and reported the matter to the police,” she testified to prosecutors.
The accused told prosecutors that he met one of the two runaway suspects, who informed him that they had intended to trick victims and embezzle their money.
“He didn’t tell me how, but he just asked me to collect instant cash transfers in the name of someone called Gulam. The other suspect handed me the ID to present it at money exchange houses to collect the cash,” the suspect said.
The primary judgement remains subject to appeal.
