Man jailed for duping woman in phone scam

Legal and Court Correspondent

Amanager has been jailed for one year for cheating a woman out of Dh21,000 after deceitfully convincing her that she had won a Dh200,000 cash prize from du.

The Russian received an SMS followed by a phone call in September 2017 from a man who told her he was from du and that her number had been picked for a prize of Dh200,000.

She was told to pay Dh21,000 as tax in order to claim her prize.

The Russian, who fell for the trick, paid the ‘tax’ in phone credits and made an instant cash transfer before realising she had become a victim of a phone scam.

On Tuesday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the 26-year-old Pakistani defendant of using someone else’s Emirates ID when he went to collect the transfer, swindling the Russian’s money.

The primary judgement remains subject to appeal.