Monday, Aug 03, 2015
Dubai: Dubai Police’s Anti-Economic Crime Department caught 331 suspects in 301 cases involving Dh121 million this year, a top official said on Monday.
Maj Gen Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, Assistant to the Dubai Police Chief for Criminal Investigation Affairs, said 165 were cases involving commercial fraud, piracy and stealing intellectual property in which 179 suspects were arrested, 95 cases involved swindling and fraud where 108 suspects were arrested and 41 cases were of forgery in which 44 suspects were arrested.
These cases, he said, included cases of doubling money, sorcery, trademark and copy right infringements.
The number could be greater, as these are the number of cases handled by the Anti-Economic Crime Department, which handles cases reported against unknown suspects. There are other cases handled by police stations.
He explained that if a person accuses another of forgery, this is handled by the police station and is not included in the department’s statistics.
Lt Col Omar Bin Hammad, Deputy Director of the Anti-Economic Crime Department, said the police seized 92 fake gas cylinders in June.
He said that a gang of four was involved in illegally refilling gas cylinders using rudimentary and unsafe methods.
He said the gang then sold the cylinders at lower prices. “These cylinders could explode due to the incorrect method used to refill them, and they also finish much quicker than the original ones.”
People should only buy from legitimate gas companies, and ensure that the cylinders have a seal on the nozzle, which indicates that the cylinder is from the genuine company.
In August, the police seized 1,920 counterfeit branded undergarments.
Lt Col Bin Hammad said people are still falling prey to money doubling scams. “Most people who fall prey to this trick are Asian, and all the suspects are Africans.”
In money doubling schemes, the scammers claim they have a liquid that can turn plain paper into US dollars.
The scammers show the victim a black paper the size of a US dollar and rubs that “magic liquid” and it becomes a dollar.
In reality, it’s just a dollar painted with a black material and the liquid, which can be just simple nail polish, removes the colour revealing the bill.
The scammer asks the victim to go check the authenticity of the bill and when they do, the scammer gives them a bag filled with “millions of dollars” which he supposedly made using the liquid.
“The scammer asks for the price of the liquid he used in exchange for the money. After the victim falls for the trick, he or she is left with stacks of empty paper, with a fake dollar bill on the outside,” he said.
Sorcery scams are also still prevalent, he said, adding that Arabs are the most common victims of such crimes.
Counterfeit CD and DVDs have become a rarity, he said. This is because Dubai Police have identified the locations and timings when those people go out to sell them and they have been arresting many people.
‘However, there is a new trend of people downloading movies off the internet and selling them to people on USBs instead. We have caught people doing this red-handed and seized the USB and the computer used.” Lt Col Bin Hammad said.
By Noorhan Barakat Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2015. All rights reserved.
