Fake employee swindles individual out of Dhs42,000 through lease renewal in Abu Dhabi

The Abu Dhabi Family, Civil, and Administrative Cases Court ruled that one individual must pay another Dhs42,500. The case arose when the defendant rented a property from a company.

During the lease renewal, the defendant received a message instructing him to transfer the rent to a bank account. The message sender impersonated a company employee. It was later revealed that the account did not belong to the company, and the tenant had fallen victim to fraud.

The victim subsequently filed a lawsuit against the fraudster, seeking Dhs42,500 in repayment, plus Dhs10,000 for material, moral, and psychological damages. Additionally, he requested legal interest at a rate of 10% on the outstanding amount, from the date of the lawsuit until complete payment, along with all court fees and costs.

The complainant initiated legal action, alleging that he was a tenant of a property managed by a real estate company. When renewing his lease, he received an email from someone posing as an administrative employee of the company, who requested that the rent payment be transferred and provided bank account details for this purpose.

After completing the transfer, the complainant discovered that the account was not associated with the landlord company and realised he had been defrauded.

He reported the incident to the authorities, leading to the referral of the case to the Public Prosecution. A criminal case was subsequently registered, and the accused faced charges of misappropriating funds through fraudulent means.