Dubai: Sharjah residents have been swindled by a Pakistani man who promised to drive them to their workplaces in Dubai and back. The man with multiple names took off with their money, leaving his customers stranded and without the means to commute to work and back. His disappearance even cost one of the residents her job.
“We found his advertisement for car lifts in the newspaper. I paid him the Dh700 monthly fee in advance. He was supposed to drive my wife to her workplace near BurJuman,” Jasem Mohammad Ameen, an Indian manager at a Dubai-based company, said, “He only showed up twice.”
Ameen said that the driver, whom he knew as Ali, soon became furtive, claiming he was ill and he couldn’t meet the pick-up timings they had agreed upon.
“Whenever Ali would answer my phone calls, he would say he was very sick. Soon, he stopped taking my phone calls altogether. He basically took my money and vanished.”
Ali was contacted for a comment, but he hung up the phone after he knew that he was being questioned by the press.
Many residents don’t have their own means to commute to work so they resort to car lifts. Advertisements for car lifts are abundant on classified pages or on the internet, with options to pay monthly or daily. However, although these are a cheaper and more efficient alternative to public transportation, drivers that charge passengers for car lifts are not registered with authorities.
The RTA has a system called Sharekni, which encourages carpooling as a way to reduce traffic congestion. Passengers and drivers can register with Sharekni free of charge. Only payments for petrol can be shared between the driver and passengers. The RTA has advised people to use the registered carppoling service only.
Jasem said that Ali would post ads under different names and mobile number in the classified pages of newspapers.
“He told me his name is Ali,” Amin said, “but I found out he was using a set of names. Another customer knew him as Nadim, while another woman knew him as Haithar.”.
An Indian teacher, S.R., was also conned by the Pakistani driver.
“I lost my job because of him,” she said, “I couldn’t find the means to commute to work. I stopped trusting all the ads for car lifts in the newspaper. I also paid him Dh700 to take me to work for a month. He appeared only a few times. Finally, he told me to find another way to get to work.”
S.R. said that the man promised to return her money within a week.
“He stopped answering my phone calls,” she said, “My father finally managed to reach him over the phone. He said he was in Pakistan and he couldn’t return the money yet. However, I found out that he was still in the country as he was driving a friend of mine to work.”
S.R.’s friend, I.M., said that Umran (as she knew him) drove her to work for a few months, before he disappeared.
“In the beginning, he was reliable,” the Syrian woman, who is an employee at a dentist centre in Deira, said. “Either he or his brother would drive me to my workplace. But after Eid, he suddenly said he was not able to drive me, and that I should find another person to commute with. I had just paid him the month’s fee. He told me he would return the money, but I have yet to hear from him.”
