You would think that in 2018 it's quite rare for a grown adult to fall for a phone scam. However, that's not the case at all.
A Russian woman was caught up in a phone scam in the UAE after a man convinced her that she had won a 200,000 dirham ($54,447) prize from telecom company du.
In Sept. 2017, the woman received a text followed by a phone call from someone who told her he worked with the telecom company.
He explained that her phone number granted her the cash prize, but requested she pays 21,000 dirhams ($5,717) in taxes before claiming the money.
She made an instant cash transfer ... and that's when she realized she became a victim of a phone scam.
"Later I discovered that I had been duped and reported the matter to the police," the woman testified, according to Gulf News.
Police apprehended the 26-year-old Pakistani man after he attempted to collect the cash from a money exchange house using someone else's Emirates ID.
On Tuesday, the suspect pleaded "not guilty" and denied the accusations before the Dubai Court of First Instance.
"I used the Emirates ID, but I did not swindle the claimant or embezzle her money," he said, according to Gulf News.
A final verdict on the case will be heard on Oct. 23.
Earlier this year, Dubai Police busted a "large telemarketing racket"
In June, Dubai Police busted a "telemarketing racket" that tricked people into paying a certain amount of cash in return for "prizes from telecom companies," according to Gulf News.
Over 33 people were arrested in the reported scam.
Not the first scam in the country
In 2017, more than 40 UAE residents were scammed out of their money by an online shopping website headquartered in Dubai.
The website, SouqGitex.com, had an officially registered office in Dubai's Deira district. The company was formally registered as Spring Oasis General Trading LLC with Dubai's Department of Economic Development (DED.)
StepFeed was contacted by over 20 victims of the scam who told us they had ordered items online but never received the goods. The amount the victims had spent online varied from 1,500 dirhams ($408) to 8,000 dirhams ($2,177.)
"I ordered a Samsung Galaxy S8 online from this website. They took my money, I never received the phone, and I haven't heard from them since the beginning of August. They are not answering my phone calls or emails," Sharjah-resident Rahul Periwal told StepFeed at the time.
The UAE government takes these issues very seriously and has repeatedly warned residents in the past to be careful when purchasing items online, buying used cars, dealing with unregistered immigration centers, or bogus recruitment agencies.