Online daters tricked into scam by student posing as a woman

A student is accused of pretending to be a girl on a dating website then black­mailing men he arranged to meet.
Dubai Court of First Instance was told when suitors arrived for the date, the 20-year-old Indian would allegedly turn up claiming the men had been chatting to his sister and demand they pay him money for offending her honour.
He would threaten to have them jailed if they didn’t pay up, prosecutors said. It is claimed the student used the Badoo social network and made a profile for a woman called Kenda, supposedly Syrian. The profile included a picture of a girl.
Last September, a 32-year-old Indian man started messaging ‘Kenda’ via the site, and the pair corresponded until ‘Kenda’ asked to meet for dinner. They arranged to meet in front of Zabeel Park, the court heard.
“She failed to show,” the suitor said. “Instead a man came and claimed she was his sister and that their brother was a policeman and would arrest me.”

The student allegedly asked for Dhs25,000 in exchange for not informing police. The man said he could pay only Dhs5,000. He handed over the money then went to police.
Officers set up a sting with another man posing as a suitor for ‘Kenda’. They said the defendant tried to blackmail him as well. The student denies a charge of blackmail. The trial was adjourned.