DUBAI There seems to be no end in sight to the plague of trading scams in Dubai.
Days after Marine Bunker Shipping LLC disappeared with Panadol worth Dh300,000, another fraudulent company has made good with Dh250,000 worth of liquid soap Dettol and detergent Tide.
Details are emerging about how nearly 40 UAE traders have been duped by a gang of sweet-talking Asian conmen who used a company called Avon Line Electronics Trading as a front to pull off the all-too-familiar scam: Buying a variety of goods against post-dated cheques which eventually turn out to be duds.
Among the worst hit is Wasim Aziz of Ajman-based Rashid Packaging Industries. The Indian businessman delivered 550 cartons of popular penetrating oil and water-displacing spray WD40 and high grade empty cartons totalling Dh865,000 to Avon Line’s Ras Al Khor godown.
Fancy set up:
“They had a fancy office in Deira. Who would have thought they were scamsters,” recalled Aziz.
A.D. of Dubai-based D.E Electronics Trading, who supplied Apple AirPods worth Dh134,000 said he would have lost the entire amount had he not insisted on taking 50 per cent payment in cash.
However, Mohammad Ijaaz of S.J Multimedia Electronics who supplied around 300 projectors and 500 LEDs didn’t have any such luck. He lost nearly Dh500,000.
Another victim, Hassan, who sold 12,000 bottles of antiseptic liquid Dettol and 19 kilograms of laundry detergent Tide said he is still in disbelief. “I don’t know if I could recover my losses,” he said.
Sharjah shocker
A similar scam has been reported from Sharjah as well where conmen behind the bogus Sama Al Falah Auto Spare Parts downed the shutters of their office in Industrial Area and vanished without a trace.
A.L. who supplied them watches, power banks and cellphones pegged his losses at Dh68,000.
An Abu Dhabi company which sold steel plates lost Dh700,000 while a Sharjah-based international service provider to the oil and gas industry reportedly lost Dh400,000.
