Dubai: Dubai Police arrested gang that robbed Dh4.9 million from victims after deceiving them through social media posts.
According to Brigadier Abdelhaleem Al Hashemi, the Acting Director of Al Qusais Police Station, the gang members, through social media posts, offered to sell dollars and gold plates at low prices before setting up a meeting with the victims and robbing them.
The 26 members of the gang were arrested after police received eight complaints from different victims.
The first incident occurred when a man saw a social media post about an offer to sell dollars at a low price. He contacted the number mentioned in the post and was sent a location for the meeting. Upon arrival at the location, two men stepped inside the victim’s car to check the money before physically assaulting him and running away with he cash.
“We were investigating this case when we received a complaint from a second victim who claimed that a group of men had stolen Dh1.8 million from him through a gold plates scam,” Brig Al Hashemi said. The second victim had also seen a social media post offering to sell gold plates at a price lower than the market rate. He met some of the gang members in the Al Qusais area of Dubai and they robbed him of his money and even threatened to kill him if he reported the incident to the police.
“After receiving eight reports from different people, we knew it was the same gang. We formed a team and arrested the suspects from different places in the Al Qusais area. There were 26 suspects, including two women,” Brig Al Hashemi said.
“After the robbery, the gang members used to wire-transfer the money to their respective countries,” he added.
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All the suspects have been referred to Dubai Public Prosecution.
Brig Al Hashemi has urged all community members to be watchful and not to fall prey to social media posts. “They [criminals] are using social media to lure victims to meeting them and are then stealing their money. People should go to verified gold shops and exchange houses only to avoid trouble,” he advised.
