Asian foreman claiming to be US army officer promises to marry European girl, dupes her of Dhs620,000

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Court of Misdemeanors sentenced an Asian foreman to six months in prison and fined him Dhs620,000, the amount which he seized from a European girl.

As per the case details the foreman promised to marry the girl, but took the money, from her and disappeared.

The convict would be deported after serving his jail term, the court ruled.

The story began in January 2020 and continued until January 2022, when the convict communicated with a European girl via a dating app.

According to the victim’s statement, she was looking for a person to marry or befriend through an application for dating, and she chose the suspect and then the story began.

She explained that he started talking about his work as an officer in the army of a Western country, and he was talking to her from the UAE.

He also informed her that he wanted to marry her and move to the US.

He reinforced his lies by sending pictures of an officer claiming that they were of him.

She added that the convict was communicating with her via the "WhatsApp" and "Skype" and that he was refusing to open his camera, claiming that he was working in a military institution, and was not allowed to open the camera.

The convict asked her for sums, to give to one of the soldiers to replace him in the service, so as to speed up their marriage and move to live in the United States. 

She transferred sums to him over  a period of time, including crypto currency worth Dhs100,000, which he claimed would give to an official as a bribe to allow him quit the job.

The total money transferred to him reached Dhs620,000, the victim confirmed.

After transferring the money, she asked to meet him to complete marriage procedures, but he became unreachable, as all his communication accounts and his phone were closed.

She discovered that she had been tricked when she searched with the photos in the search engine.

The man in the pictures was a former officer living in the USA, and that he is married and has children, so she filed a report with the police.

A team of criminal investigations was able to identify the convict.

He was a 33-year-old Asian worked as a foreman. He was arrested and during interrogation, he denied his crime, claiming that he had no relationship with the victim and denied receiving any money from her.

According to the investigations, it was found that he had received large sums of money from the victim’s account on his account in one of the state’s banks, and that he withdrew the money.