Dubai Housing Market fraud you must be aware…

There is a high level fraud scheme going on in Dubai targeting mostly Nigerians and other African visitors.

The scheme is carried out by Pakistanis, Jordanians and Egyptian residents in Dubai.

Modus Operandi —–》》》》》

They have marketers (catchers) stationed at the Dubai Airport who look out for black Africans arriving Dubai.
– The catchers meticulously avoid Arabs, white people, European and Asian visitors.
– They target black Africans from Nigeria and other African countries.
– The target must be above 30 years and married.

Note: If you are a Nigerian with British or American Passport/Citizenship, they avoid or discharge you immediately.

Stage 1:

The catcher dressed in white shirt with black or dark colour suit and tie, approaches a mark (Nigerian visitor). They tell him or her that they have a free gift from their organisation in collaboration with the UAE government.

The catcher shows a catalogue book with pictures of attraction sites in Dubai and tell the mark to choose anyone he wants to visit with his wife and family. This is to get his attention, hotel address, purpose of visit and other information.

Stage 2:

After choosing one of the free tour. The mark is required to write down his phone number (WhatsApp), hotel address and names.

A driver is sent to pick him up the same day or next morning for the free tour. But he needs to get to the office first.

Stage 3:

At the office, the mark meets other marks from African countries all blacks, no white, no Latino, no Arab or Asian. Before the tour they have to undergo a Presentation in separate groups with several staff of the company.

Stage 4:

During the presentation. Each family or mark has a particular staff to do their/his presentation. In the office, a soft low music of trending African songs are played. The mark is served coffee or chocolate or tea with biscuits.

Stage 5: The scheme

The mark is given a brief history of Dubai’s prosperity and investment opportunities in property. You are told that property is the best investment in Dubai, but because price of property in Dubai is very high starting from 400 thousand dollars. The company claims they are working with Dubai Property commission and developed an investment scheme where one single apartment of 3 Bedroom Flat in Jumeirah Island which it’s ownership has been split into 4. Four different clients (marks) could each own a fraction of the Apartment.

Then the mark is to make a choice from different types of properties ranging from 1 Bedroom Apartment to 4 Bedrooms in different locations of Jumeirah Island and other exotic locations in Dubai.

Stage 6: Payment

Whatever property the mark chose, he will be asked to make a cash deposit immediately which will entitle him to 15-25% Discount.

The mark would be told that if he doesn’t make commitment immediately or soon after, he can’t get the 15 or 25% Discount.

Now, he would be asked to make commitment from as little as $300 to any amount.

They have POS for cards, foreign accounts and cash option.

Stage 6: The Plot Twist

After payment, the mark is now told about a Club Membership Card that comes with the purchase. The staff begins to talk about the Club Card and subtly mention that since there are other owners of the purchased property that his purchase will only entitle him to some few days stay in the property each year. But his Club Card will entitle him to other benefits including flight discounts, hotel booking discounts in other countries and discount on other purchases such as electronic devices, mobile gadgets and cars – African country is the location of shops, hotels and others for the use of Card.

Stage 7: Agreement

The mark is taken to another bigger and finer office for him to meet a manager and execute an Agreement document for purchase. The document will not mention any property but mention the Club Membership Card.

The Agreement document will state that if the mark doesn’t pay 30% of the purchase price within 30 days, he loses his initial deposit and purchase rights.

Additionally, he is to make monthly payments of the 70% balance which must be completed within 18-20 months from date of Agreement or he loses his deposit.

After completion of purchase price, the mark is to make monthly maintenance fee of around $350-$750 depending on his Club Membership Card which could be Silver, Gold or Platinum. If he misses the payment of maintenance fee for a period 3 months, he loses his membership and purchase money.

End

This fraud scheme is a legal scheme, it is only a fraud in advanced societies. It is hardly a crime that can be prosecuted in developing countries like Africa so a victim has no remedy. Even Nigerian laws have not advanced to identify and define such fraud whether under our civil or criminal laws.

It is a kind of Consumer Fraud where a Company advertises a product or services on false or misleading information and properties that the product or service doesn’t have.

This is one of the reasons Mavrodi could operate MMM in Russia but the website has a disclaimer in bold red letters that forbade Russian and UK citizens from investing in MMM.

MMM targeted Nigeria, Bangladesh, Philippines and other primitive economies without modern Consumer Protection Laws, and as far as the victims of MMM were not Russians, Mavrodi did not break any law in his country.