A Sudanese expatriate used his PhD degree as a cover to deceive more than 60 people into thinking that he was able to sort out their financial problems with banks and to convince them of his ability to deal with other fees, such as, telephone and electricity bills and traffic tickets. The swindler used a fancy apartment in Umm Al-Qura Street in Jeddah as an office for his activities while his wife also used a room in the apartment to deal with female customers. It is estimated that he gained around SR 300,000 by promising to solve people's problems with banks and different administrations in a short time. He also spread rumors about his so-called wide ranging investments in order to charge large sums of money for commissions. One of the deceived customers reported to the police that the swindler had taken money from him but was procrastinating in solving his problem with a bank. The man said he went to the bank to find out what was happening, only to discover that he was the victim of a fraud. A financial crimes combat team started investigating the swindler and collecting information about him. An undercover agent was sent pretending to have some financial problems. The swindler agreed to solve the agent's problems for SR 5,000. The next day, when the money was handed over, the police arrested the swindler and his wife. At first they denied that they had ever seen the agent, but eventually they confessed to their crimes after other victims testified against them.
