Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — Police here are currently investigating complaints from a number of citizens who said a young Saudi woman in her 20s had conned them out of at least SR500 million before fleeing the country with her husband, Al-Watan reported on Tuesday. The complaints were filed at the police station in Jeddah's Al-Salamah District. Police did not identify the woman but said they were assessing the number of victims before they could attempt to bring the woman back through legal channels. According to police sources, at least 1,190 victims have been scammed. Some victims said they received checks from the woman with different signatures that were not accepted by the banks. They said the con artist had licenses for two trading establishments, one in real estate development and another for importing electric equipment. One of the victims, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the woman's establishment was not authorized to carry out investment business but she was able to convince them that they would have good returns if they invested with her. He said before fleeing, she sent the victims a letter asking them for forgiveness and promising to reimburse their money in two months. He said the woman began her business by collecting little sums of SR30,000 to SR40,000 before asking for millions. “She expanded her activities, manipulated the victims and signed checks with different signatures until she was able to collect a large sum of money,” he said. Another victim, who also did not want to be identified, said he came to know the con artist about six months ago through some female bankers. “She was able to convince me to come to her office and contribute SR6 million to one of the projects she had signed a contract to implement,” he said. The victim said he willingly gave the money to the woman after she had shown him the project's execution contract. He said she also told him that her brother was working in a big real estate development company in the US and that she had sent him SR800,000 out of his SR6 million to invest in America. The victim said the woman had some women friends at a bank in Jeddah who helped her attract the investors. He said he complained to the Interior Ministry officials asking them to arrest the woman but soon discovered that she had already escaped to another GCC country.
