Cyber scammers conned man out of $123,000 after telling him he had won huge cash prize, court hears

Iraqi man was told he had won $27 million after being contacted on Facebook

Powered by automated translation

A man was duped into spending hundreds of thousands of dollars by cyber scammers who told him he had scooped a $27 million prize online, a Dubai court was told.

The Iraqi man, whose age was not disclosed in court records, was contacted on Facebook last September and told he had won the substantial cash sum from a local bank.

He then agreed to wire $123,200 for what he was told was legal fees to process the transaction, Dubai Criminal Court heard.

“A person named Peter spoke to me on Facebook and told me about the prize. He asked me to wire money in lawyer’s fees which I sent because he said the lawyer will be handling the process of handing me the cash,” said the man.

The complainant said he was asked to meet with the man in February to receive his lucrative cash prize.

He met with a group of men near a five-star hotel in Dubai and was shown a large sum of US dollars.

He said the bills were stamped, which the men used an unknown cleaning liquid to remove.

He agreed to part with more money to buy items of the mystery cleaning liquid to use on the reminder of his cash.

But when the group asked for more money, he alerted police.

Police directed the man to set up another meeting to hand over the case, while they lied in wait to witness the transaction.

Officers arrested one men at the scene, who provided information to locate two accomplices.

One of the defendants was tracked down in Sharjah, where he was found in possession of five suitcases containing fake dollars and Euros.

The three defendants, aged 41, 44 and 50 and from Nigeria, denied charges of counterfeiting and fraudulently obtaining $123,200.

The case was adjourned until May 21.