Scam alert: 'Agencies' dupe Dubai residents by offering to supply maids

Dubai - After receiving 14 similar reports, the police investigated the social media scam and managed to track down the suspects.

Beware of bogus housemaid agencies on social media, as the Dubai Police have uncovered a scam that emerged during the peak of Covid-19 last year. Fourteen reports had been filed about scammers who promised to fly domestic helpers into the country for a certain amount of money, but when they received the cash, they were nowhere to be found.

Brig Saeed Hamad bin Sulaiman Al Malik, director of Al Rashidiya Police Station, said the reports were received from the beginning of the Covid outbreak in 2020 until February this year.

“Scammers defrauded victims of Dh9,000 to 13,000 each, which they claimed were recruitment and administrative fees. They said they could bring domestic helpers into the country despite the temporary shutdown of the world’s airports due to the pandemic,” the officer said. “They exploited the suspension of labour recruitment and took advantage of people’s need of helpers during the quarantine period.”

Brig Al Malik said the fraudsters were able to steal a total of Dh87,520 from their victims. In one case, a scammer managed to offer a housemaid to a family but only to earn their trust. When they asked him for three additional helpers for a total amount of Dh35,000, he left them in the lurch.

“After transferring the sum into his bank account, the fraudster ignored their calls and requests for weeks, then he disappeared,” the officer said.