Five phone scamsters jailed
DUBAI: Five countrymen implicated in a bid to bribe a telecom employee to help them swindle 50 smartphones worth Dhs408,000 have been jailed for two years plus deportation.
A plumber and a visitor promised a telecom company’s sales executive Dhs15, 000 in case he contravened necessary procedures and handed them 50 iphones with SIM cards of the monthly post-paid plan.
They forged applications of ten people, faked signatures, forged salary certificates attributed to companies where those people worked and presented the bogus documents to the executive.
They forged ten Power of Attorney letters showing that the people tasked them with receiving the phones in 2016.
DUBAI: Five countrymen implicated in a bid to bribe a telecom employee to help them swindle 50 smartphones worth Dhs408,000 have been jailed for two years plus deportation.
A plumber and a visitor promised a telecom company’s sales executive Dhs15,000 in case he contravened necessary procedures and handed them 50 iphones with SIM cards of the monthly post-paid plan.
They forged applications of ten people, faked signatures, forged salary certiicates attributed to companies where those people worked and presented the bogus documents to the executive.
They forged ten Power of Attorney letters showing that the people tasked them with receiving the phones in 2016. They presented them to the executive and illicitly used the people’s Emirates IDS.
A salesman, agent and businessman abetted the duo’s attempt to fraudulently get each 128GB iphone at Dhs300, according to records at Al Rifa’a Police Station. The plumber and salesman confessed in court. The company was selling each iphone at Dhs8,160 to be paid in monthly instalments over a period of 24 months. The gang wanted to obtain each iphone at Dhs300, sell them and pocket the difference.
The Egyptian executive said the plumber – who usually frequented the branch in Al Fahidi – later showed up seeking to obtain 50 iphones but then said he had 50 IDS of countrymen who had travelled abroad.
“I told him it was impossible for them to get the phones that way. He offered to pay me Dhs300 on each. I alerted the management then Al Rifa’a Police Station. I was advised to lure him,” said the executive.
The plumber irst came with six IDS and applications. He later came with the visitor (his latmate). He had four more IDS. They told the executive they had the money and had collected it from would be buyers. Policemen arrived.
An Emirati sergeant said they found the plumber and visitor in the executive’s ofice. The plumber had several IDS and application documents. He said the salesman was the one who handed them to him to bring iphones. The salesman had tasked him with delivering ive iphones to the agent in exchange for Dhs10,000 that he was supposed to share with the salesman and the visitor and give a commission to the executive.
Police arrested the salesman who was waiting inside his car outside the company’s premises. From the car, police seized a laptop, bogus salary certiicates, applications and a chequebook with all its slips signed.
The agent was found in his car nearby. They frisked him a nd seizeddhs 10,000 that the plumber and the visitor were about to deliver to the executive. Three more IDS were seized from the plumber’s wallet.
He said the businessman (his employer at a technical company) was the one who handed them to him and tasked him with using them to obtain iphones and SIM cards.
Police seized salary certiicates, trade licence copies, headed papers of companies and two printers from the visitor’s room. They ambushed the businessman outside his house.