Scammers impersonate Dubai billionaire, trick his friend into sending money

Fraudsters targeted the Dubai-based billionaire Rizwan Sajan, founder and chairman of Danube Group, by impersonating him and requesting funds from his acquaintances and followers.

Taking to Instagram, the renowned businessman revealed that one of his friends, unfortunately, lost money to the scam. In a video released late on Wednesday, he also shared the screenshot of the fake account and conversation with the scammer.

He advised his followers to beware of scammers and not remit funds because he would never send such a request.

Danube chairman has a strong fan following on social media with more than 310,000 Instagram followers. He also regularly shares videos of his meetings with the UAE leaders and interactions with the top Bollywood celebrities and social media influencers. Danube Group is a multibillion-dirham group with interests in real estate, retail, home furnishing, media, hospitality, etc.

While narrating the incident, Sajan revealed that one of his close friends came to Dubai and posted a picture with him on her wall, which he also posted on his social media platform.

“After three days, one person who created a fake profile of mine on Telegram contacted her and asked for 150,000 Indian rupees (Dh6,700-plus) worth of Amazon gift card. My friend thought I was asking for the money and she remitted. When I actually asked the friend, why did you send the money? She said I thought you wanted this gift card and probably are not able to get it. That’s the reason I thought I should do it immediately for you,” he said while narrating the story on his Instagram account.

“I would never ever ask you for any money. So in the future, if somebody contacts you, please understand this is a fake profile. Just blindly don’t give the money... My humble request is please don’t fall into this trap,” he added.

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