Dubai: Scores of traders visited the XPRESS office on Sunday to thank the newspaper for last week’s expose on the perpetrators of the trading scams, hoping the report would help put an end to their menace.

“We are grateful to XPRESS as its investigative report has given us the strength to join hands and request authorities for ‘swift and detrimental’ action against the masterminds of the well-oiled racket which has wiped out nearly Dh1 billion from the market and destroyed hundreds of lives in the country,” the traders said in a written statement on behalf of nearly 50 recent and earlier scam victims.

The members of the business community urged authorities to investigate and crack down on the gang leaders and their accomplices mentioned by their initials in the XPRESS report.

Many said their main grouse was that the police regard their complaints as bounced-cheque cases instead of organised crimes.

“These conmen never have any intention to pay for the goods they obtain against post-dated cheques. This is willful default,” said a businessman saddled with dud cheques given in lieu of plywood worth Dh300,000.

Endemic

The traders also called for a mechanism to prevent stolen goods from being shipped outside the country. “The authorities need to adopt a more radical approach to tackle trading scams as they have become an endemic,” said a Bur Dubai-based businessman who lost Dh250,000.

“Of late trading scams have become a routine affair. If this goes on unchecked many of us would be forced out of business,” said a man who delivered electrical goods worth Dh700,000 to the fraudulent Bright Way Technical Services which shut its Dubai Investment Park (DIP) office last month and disappeared.

As it turned out, the cheque was returned due to lack of funds.

Gangs 'invulnerable'

Another businessman who supplied building material worth Dh93,000 to Black Star Electronics which vanished last fortnight said the gangs featured by XPRESS have developed a sense of invulnerability and continue to strike with impunity.

“I hope they are brought to book soon,” said a victim of Explore Far East Marine which operated from Al Khaleej Centre in Bur Dubai and duped dozens out of Dh30 million around this time last year. Traders said they have immense faith in UAE authorities.

“We hope that they will consider our plea and dismantle the organised crime network behind the recurring trading scams that have left a trail of devastation across the country,” they said in a statement.

Year-long investigation

The September XPRESS 21 report — a culmination of a year-long investigation — found that the 150-odd trading scams that have hit the UAE since 2015 are largely the handiwork of just three gangs.

They are led by longtime UAE residents — D.R., E.P. J. and M.B (full names withheld for legal reasons) who stay in the shadows, building complex smuggling and distribution networks through China, India, Pakistan and the Far East.