Blogger defrauds follower of Dhs153,000 through fake ad on a luxury vehicle

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Misdemeanour Court ruled in absentia that a GCC blogger be imprisoned for 3 months, as she  conniving with an Asian woman, defrauded one of her followers and seized Dhs153,000 from him.

The suspect deceived the victim with a deal to sell a luxurious vehicle at an attractive price.The court fined the blogger Dhs153,000, and the Asian woman Dhs10,000.

The details of the case date back to an earlier time, when a person submitted a report complaining that he had been defrauded by a GCC girl working in the field of advertising on the social media.

According to the complainant's testimony in the interrogations, he said that he knew the suspect through her platform on "Snapchat", and he was one of her followers. He reportedly saw an ad by her showing luxury vehicles belonging to an important person for sale at reduced prices.

In the interrogations, the complainant added that he contacted the suspect to buy the vehicle, so she provided him with a bank account number she claimed that it belonged to the secretary of the owner of the vehicle, and asked him to transfer Dhs153,000 to reserve the vehicle and ensure that he would obtain it, so he transferred the money to the account.

Later, the GCC woman delayed and refused to answer her phone, so he realised he had fallen victim to fraud, so he filed a report with the police.

According to the case file, the complainant presented the money transfer receipts, the conversations between him and the GCC suspect and the account number used in the fraud, so the GCC suspect and the other girl were identified, who denied the claim.

The Asian girl admitted that she had received the money through her account and handed it over to the GCC partner upon her request without knowing that the money was the result of a fraud.

The Public Prosecution in Dubai charged the GCC woman of fraudulently seizing the complainant's money and accused the Asian woman of possessing the proceeds of a fraud.