Dubai: The police arrested a scam artist who conned a man and illegally obtained Dh200,000 by selling him forged dollars, an official said on Tuesday.
The African fraudster met an Asian man in Al Muraqqabat area and told him that he want to sell $100,000 for less than its value. He showed the Asian victim a real $100 note and then sold him the dollars for Dh200,000. The dollar bills were later discovered to be fake.
Colonel Turki Bin Faris, director of Command and Control Unit in the operations Department at Dubai Police, said they were alerted about a fraudster selling dollars less than its actual value in the market.
“The Asian man said that he met the fraudster and was looking to change the dirhams to dollars. He gave him the money but later discovered they was forged notes,” Colonel bin Faris said.
A team of officers called the victim and identified his location. He gave the victim’s plate number to the officers and police identified the location of the car.
“We spoke with the victim over the phone and within 20 minutes we identified the suspect’s car. It was rented from a shop in Al Muraqqabat area. We kept following the car on command centre screens and informed police patrols to be ready to arrest the suspect.”
The suspect wanted to make sure that nobody was following him and kept driving to Bur Dubai and then back to Deira while checking the cars around him until he felt safe and went to the car rental firm’s office to return the vehicle.
“We arrested him on arrival and he confessed that he conned the Asian man by selling him fake dollars,” Colonel Faris added.
The suspect was handed over to Al Muraqabbat police station to finish the investigations.
Colonel Bin Faris, urged the public to be careful and always exchange the currency in authorised companies and exchange houses and alert police about individuals exchanging currency.
Major General Abdullah Khalifa Al Merri, Commander-In-Chief of Dubai Police, honoured the team of officers who tracked the African fraudster. The team was given certificates.
“We encourage our officers to make more efforts in combating crime in the emirate and return the lawful rights to the people,” Maj Gen Al Merri said.
