Legal experts against penalising victims of get-rich-quick schemes

A Dubai Police suggestion that victims of get-rich-quick schemes be considered participants in the crime has received lukewarm response from judges and lawyers, Emirates Business has learnt.

The legal community said it based its reservations primarily on the fact that implementing the suggestion would put the perpetrator and the victim on an equal footing.

In addition, it was illegal to impose a penalty on a victim, who did not commit any crime. It was sufficient that his money had been lost in the first place and there was no surety that he would get it back even after the culprit was arrested and convicted by court for the wrongdoing.

The Dubai Police said it based its suggestion on statistics that crimes of fraud continue to take place in the UAE and Dubai despite its efforts to follow up and investigate swindlers as well as raise awareness through the mass media.

Statistics show 46 fraud cases took place last year in Dubai, in which the swindlers tried to obtain Dh130 million through fraudulent and illegal methods. In addition, 36 similar cases took place during first nine months of the current year in Dubai.

The UAE's courts are overburdened with fraud cases, including a case in which eight swindlers in Ras Al Khaimah were caught with fake currency worth $5m (Dh18.3m) in their possession.

They were trying to distribute the counterfeit among people claiming they could double their money. Their modus operandi was taking original notes from their victims, which they replaced with forged ones.

Such swindlers use modern methods, such as SMS and e-mails, to mislead members of the public in giving them an impression that they have won prizes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and have to pay transfer charges to receive the money.

They even try to find the bank account details of their victims in order to withdraw all their funds through dubious methods. Many banks have reported that their customers have fallen victims to such schemes, and local banks have issued instructions to customers to change the PIN numbers of their cards.

The judges and lawyers refused to consider the victim as a contributor to the crime, saying two penalties would be imposed on the victim in that case. The first was that his money was taken by the swindler, and the second penalty would be involving him in the crime, even if it was only his naivety and greed that made him fall victim to the fraud.

A judge at Dubai Criminal Court, who requested anonymity, said a victim in fraud cases is almost like the defendant as he wants, for example, to spend Dh5,000 to get Dh20,000, which is illogical. In that respect, the victim could be equated to the swindler, but it was illogical to impose on the victim the same penalty that is imposed on the person committing the fraud.

He attributed the increase and spread of such fraud cases in the country to the presence of many diverse cultures and communities. In addition, the country's open economy policy makes it a fertile place for the swindlers to operate, he said.

The judge said he himself has had a brush with such schemes when he received a text message on his mobile phone from an unknown sender, which said he had won a large sum of money and was required to send his bank account number for the money to be transferred. He said he ignored the message, as he knew the methods the swindlers used to deceive their victims.

Narrating a bizarre court case that he presided over, the judge said the victim in it was naïve enough to believe a swindler who called him on his mobile phone and claimed a demon was inside him.

In order to get the demon out, the swindler asked for money to buy a certain kind of incense, which was unavailable in Dubai. The victim gave him the money.

After a few days, the swindler sent a person to the victim for more money, claiming that a sacrifice needed to be made to the demon. The victim was also told to pay the mediator his hotel expenses. The victim continued to pay the swindler until he informed one of his friends, who told him he had fallen victim to a major fraud.

Saeed Al Gelani, a lawyer, also said he refused to consider the victim as a party to such as crime as that would contradict with the philosophy of penalty legislation.

The victim would be penalised twice – his money was already lost and he would be penalised again for being a partner in the crime. That was not in line with the philosophy of the penalty legislation, which is usually drawn up to curb culprits and prevent them from committing crimes.

He added the law already has a means of punishing those naïve victims who make it easy for the swindlers by declaring the defendants not guilty. Declaring the defendants not guilty was a big punishment for the victims, who would not only lose their money but also see their defrauders go free.

As an alternative for punishing the victim in such frauds, Al Gelani suggested intensifying awareness campaigns in society and community and putting up photos of the criminals in public places, such as coffee-shops, hotels, internet cafés, etc.

Ali Al Shamsi, another lawyer, also rejected the idea of including the plaintiff as an accomplice in the fraud.

There could be only one instance where the victim could be considered an accomplice – when he facilitated fraud against a third person in any way. The penalty on the victim is the loss of his money, he said.

This thing is taken into account by the UAE courts when they hear such cases. They only impose a fine on the indicted since the victim was aware of what was being devised against him, or he facilitated the theft. It would be difficult for the plaintiff to file a civil lawsuit against the fraudster to get compensation, Al Shamsi said, so it was not feasible to impose a new penalty on the victim who had already suffered financial and moral damage.

The only man of law to support the idea of punishing the victim in fraud crimes was Mohammed Abdul Karim, a lawyer, who said the victim's greed and naivety facilitate the perpetration of such crimes and make the UAE and Dubai a fertile place for crimes of fraud. Also, this puts a big burden on the police and the judicial system to fight this crime.

Abdul Karim said people with money to invest should put their wealth into proper economic projects, not dubious get-rich-quick schemes.


Fraud cases down

Thirty-six cases of money doubling scams have been reported in the first nine months of this year in which 65 people have been accused, according to Lieutenant-Colonel Abdul Rahman Saeed Obaidullah, Director of the Department of Anti-Economic Crimes.

This is down from 46 cases in 2008, with 78 defendants who tried to embezzle Dh130 million, and 72 cases in 2007 with 128 defendants, he said.

Obaidullah attributed the fall to awareness campaigns in the media and an increase in efforts by Dubai Police to combat economic crimes. He said fraudsters have devised new ways of duping their victims asking them to invest their funds in real estate and profitable trade projects.

The latest victim was a Gulf businessman who responded to the fraudsters' demand for Dh600,000 for investing in Dubai projects. However, Dubai Police arrested the fraudsters.


Phone and investment scams

Sharjah Police recently unearthed a scheme of fraud in which the perpetrators were posing as etisalat staff and calling up its subscribers to tell them they had won a million dirhams in a so-called etisalat millionaire award.

They asked the subscribers to send them credit ranging from Dh500 and Dh1,000 to claim the award and managed to collect several thousands of dirhams in this way.

The fraudsters proved to be violators of the residency and work conditions. They belonged to various nationalities and some had been deported from the UAE.

Abu Dhabi Police received 18 complaints related to the case and a police source there said there might be scores of people who had not informed the police.

In another case in Dubai, police arrested an African gang of three who claimed they were able to change dirhams into euros at higher-than-market rates. The gang managed to take Dh12,400 from a victim after telling him they would give €700 per Dh1,000. They handed over to the man a bag with black paper, saying what was needed was a chemical that would change the paper into real currency. Then they demanded Dh200,000 for the chemical.

Dubai Criminal Court is trying two Arab men, one of whom is from the Gulf, for deceiving a Saudi national into believing they would be able to finance his trading projects through a bogus finance company they owned in Malaysia.

After the businessman arrived in Dubai from Saudi Arabia, the two sent copies of his trading company's register and passport to Malaysia and days later they told him the Malaysian company had agreed to finance his project worth $210 million (Dh771m).

The fraudsters said the amount had been sent from Malaysia and there was a delivery fee of half a million Saudi riyals that he needed to pay them.

The victim handed over SR375,000 to one of the accused who made off with it. Dubai Police later arrested the two fraudsters.


The UAE penal code

According to the UAE law, fraud means the embezzlement of other people's money through dubious means. Under the penal code, the penalty for fraud is imprisonment for periods left to the judge's own discretion, starting from three months, followed by deportation and a permanent ban on re-entry.

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