Fraudsters sentenced in UAE and UK impersonation scams

In separate criminal cases, courts in the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom have addressed significant financial fraud schemes involving impersonation.

The Sharjah Misdemeanours Court sentenced two men in absentia to six months in prison and ordered their deportation from the UAE. The defendants had posed as government representatives to convince a victim they had won a Dh200,000 lottery prize. By requesting personal identification and a one-time password (OTP) under the guise of verification, the men successfully withdrew Dh84,000 from the victim's account.

In Scotland, three men—Duncan Currie, Ahsan Shahid, and Sean Singh—admitted to defrauding dozens of pensioners between October 2022 and November 2024. The group targeted individuals aged 65 to 90 by posing as police officers or bank fraud investigators. Victims were often persuaded to withdraw large sums of money, typically between £6,000 and £8,000, to be collected by a courier or transferred into ‘mule’ accounts. The group is scheduled to be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on November 20.