Dubai honey trap gang of women ‘beat up clients and stole their money’

Gang of six Nigerian women accused of befriending men on messaging app Tango, luring them to their apartment and then attacking the men and stealing their money

Six women who set a honey trap, luring men with the offer of sex and then robbing them, cried before judges as they pleaded guilty to forming a gang and theft charges.

Prosecutors said that the Nigerian women, aged between 28 and 58, had been targeting men through social media platforms, offering massages and sexual services for money.

In November last year, they lured three men - a Syrian, 27, an Iraqi, 28, and a Saudi, 31 - into their apartment in Central Park Towers, DIFC, then attacked and robbed them, Dubai Criminal Court heard.

“I was online when a European woman added me to her Tango account then we agreed to meet at her place on November 24 last year for sex in return for Dh600,” said the Syrian, who is in the UAE on a visit visa.

When he arrived, he said the door was opened for him but he couldn’t see who had opened it.

“I stepped into the flat to be attacked by six African women. The woman I saw in the picture online was not even there,” he said.

The man said he was assaulted and restrained before being ordered to hand over all his money. One woman snatched the mobile phone out of his hand, he said, before he was released, Dh1,000 worse off.

The Iraqi man told prosecutors that he was added by a woman on the Tango messaging app and, when they chatted, she told him she was a masseuse.

“We agreed on a massage session at her place in Central Park Towers and when I got there I was attacked by six women, who searched through my pockets and took more than a Dh1,000 and US$200,” he said.

The Saudi was also attacked by the women, who took more than Dh2,000 from him, he said.

The three men did not report the incidents to police but an Emirati computer programmer who was nearby did after seeing an injured man rushing out.

“I was near a building in Central Park Towers when a number of African women, who smelled like they had been drinking alcohol, passed me in the company of a man,” said the 24-year-old programmer.

“Shortly afterwards, I saw the man rushing out with his hand bleeding. I asked him what happened and he told me he was assaulted in one of the flats in that building then he left, so I called police.”

Police arrived and questioned the building’s security guard. “He told us about the women’s flat and said that every man who gets out of that apartment, gets out with an injury after being beaten up,” said a police officer, 28.

The officer added that the women refused to let police in, which prompted them to break the door after obtaining a warrant.

“We found that the woman had been overstaying their visas for a long time,” said the officer.

The six were arrested on November 25 last year.

They admitted charges of forming a gang, theft and overstaying their visas.

A verdict is due on October 1.