Picture used for illustrative purposes.

Abdulrahman Saeed, Staff Reporter

The Abu Dhabi Family, Civil and Administrative Cases Court has ordered a man to repay the sum of Dhs528,000, along with a fine of Dhs10,000, to a woman whom he defrauded through the use of the instant messaging applications Snapchat and WhatsApp. He offered her to buy a house in an investment project, thereby she handed him over the money in question.

However, she realised later that she had fallen victim to a fraud scheme. In detail, the plaintiff filed a lawsuit against the defendant, in which she requested a judgement requiring him to pay her the sum of Dhs528,000, representing the value of the amount seized by him.

Additionally, the plaintiff sought a judgement ordering the defendant to pay her the sum of Dhs100,000 as a compensation for material and moral damage, with 9% interest per annum on the amount mentioned from the date of filing the lawsuit until payment is made, and to pay the expenses and attorney's fees.

The plaintiff stated that the defendant had defrauded her through the use of information technology, misrepresenting himself and offering her an investment opportunity to purchase a property. This led to the transfer of funds to the defendant, which subsequently became apparent to the plaintiff to be a fraudulent scheme.

Consequently, criminal proceedings were initiated and a verdict was reached. The plaintiff asserted that the defendant's actions had caused her moral and material harm, prompting her to file this lawsuit with the aforementioned requests.