An Arab woman fell into the trap of a group of fraudsters (five Asians and an African), who lured her through the Instagram application, after one of them made her believe that he was a European surgeon, then he strengthened his relationship with her, and emotionally ensnared her, then blocked her number after they seized from her an amount of 900 thousand and 183 dirhams, only to discover that she was the victim of a systematic romantic fraud, so she filed a report about the incident, and the Public Prosecution in Dubai referred them to the Misdemeanor Court, which ruled to convict them, and sentenced them to one month in prison, and fined them the amount, and the Court of Appeal upheld the ruling.
In detail, the victim stated that a person added her via the Instagram application, and introduced himself as a surgeon from a European country. Then they exchanged contact numbers, and the relationship between them developed until he expressed his desire to marry her, and told her that he wanted to send her a gift, which was a package containing bags and accessories.
The victim said in the investigations of the Public Prosecution that the “fraudulent lover” informed her that the shipping company’s representative would contact her to deliver the gift to her, and after contacting her, he informed her that she had to transfer sums of money to receive the shipment, and asked her to transfer the money to several accounts, noting that the total sums she transferred amounted to 900,183 dirhams.
The Public Prosecution charged the six defendants with possessing funds obtained from fraud in circumstances that lead to the belief that their source was illegal. These were sums of money seized from the informant.
After the case was considered by the Court of First Instance, it ruled in the presence of four defendants, and in absentia against two defendants, to imprison them for a month, and to fine them jointly 900,183 dirhams, the value of the money involved in the crime, and to deport them from the country.
Three of the defendants did not accept the ruling issued by the Court of First Instance, and appealed it before the Court of Appeal, but they did not appear before it during the session scheduled to consider the appeal, and their lawyer did not attend, while the Public Prosecution requested that the appeal submitted by them be rejected.
After examining the appeal, the Dubai Court of Appeal concluded that it had met all its legal and formal requirements. With regard to its subject matter, it explained that the appealed judgment explained the facts of the case, including all the legal elements of the crime attributed to the appellant defendants, and provided evidence of its validity against them, derived from what the court was satisfied with from the victim, the confession of the second defendant, and the admission of the first, third and fourth defendants in the investigations of the Public Prosecution. This is valid evidence that has its proven origin in the papers, and is likely to lead to what the appealed judgment established. Therefore, this court refers to the reasons for the appealed judgment, and takes from them reasons that complement the reasons for its judgment.
The court concluded that the initial ruling correctly concluded the conviction of the appellant defendants and imposed on them the penalty prescribed by law, and therefore it was sound, and the appeal submitted by them did not bring anything new that would undermine the initial ruling, and therefore it ruled to uphold it.
It is noteworthy that Dubai Police warned against falling into the trap of this type of fraudsters. The Director of the Crime Control Department at the General Department of Criminal Investigations and Research, Brigadier Saeed Al Hajri, recently revealed to “Emarat Al Youm” the spread of a new type of electronic fraud, which is a hybrid of two common methods, namely investment fraud and romantic fraud.
Al-Hajri said that this new pattern mainly targets victims who suffer from loneliness, isolation and emotional emptiness. The fraudster studies his victim well through what is known as social engineering, then lures the victim in a romantic way. After a period of time, he moves to a stage known as “skinning”, which involves tempting her to invest with him and draining her financially.
One of the most prominent and destructive types, especially from a psychological perspective, is romantic fraud, also called “skinning,” which relies on draining the victim financially and emotionally until the criminal leaves them in a very bad state.
Al-Hajri pointed out that social media and dating sites have made it easy for these fraudsters to use what is known as “social engineering” of the victim, as most of the users of these platforms display all the details of their personal lives through their accounts. The fraudster studies the victim carefully, identifies her weak points, and then manipulates her by focusing on her interests. He then manipulates her emotionally and seizes her money after making her believe that he has fallen into trouble, so she takes the initiative to help him as an expression of love, and later collides with his truth when he abandons her and moves on to another.
• Dubai Court of Appeal upheld the conviction of 6 defendants involved in the crime.
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