A Nigerian has been sentenced to one and a half years in jail and deportation for using the internet to scam victims and financially defraud them, the Criminal Court of Abu Dhabi said in a statement on Saturday.The Arab plaintiff raised a case against the defendant and a woman, claiming that they had taken almost Dh6,000 (N255,339) from him after he met the woman on a social networking website. The woman alleged that she was an Arab residing outside of the UAE and had $11 million (N1.7b) deposited in a finance company in the capital, adding that she could not receive this money because the company was asking for Dh5,730 (N243,848) in return.
According to the plaintiff, the woman asked him to send her the money in exchange for 20 per cent of the deposit backing her assertions with false documents.
After agreeing to the deal, the plaintiff was told to give the money to a diplomat from the Nigerian embassy in the UAE, who also presented a false passport.
The woman contacted the plaintiff once again, asking for Dh26,000 (N1.1m), which this time caused the man to become alarmed. Police caught the accused red-handed when she came to collect the money after receiving a report from the plaintiff.
The Judicial Department warned the public not to share personal information with individuals from social networking sites and urged parents to pay close attention to their children as they are more susceptible of falling for such schemes. [GN]
