Worker accused of posing as woman on WhatsApp to lure man’s sister into sex

Pakistani allegedly got sister's number from man by posing as a woman before pretending to be the sister's old school friend and threatening to defame her if she did not have sex with him.

DUBAI // A worker used social media and posed as a female to get a woman’s phone number from her brother and then pretended to be a male school friend of hers before threatening to defame her if she did not have sex with him, Dubai Criminal Court has heard.

The 20-year-old Pakistani defendant and two compatriots, aged 20 and 33, were not present in court to enter pleas against charges of issuing threats and abusing telecommunications.

The sister, a 22-year-old Pakistani university student, told prosecutors that in May last year she received a message on WhatsApp from an old school friend who told her that he was sending her a message from his new number.

Shortly afterwards, she figured out that the man was not her friend.

“I called that friend of mine on his number and he answered and denied getting a new number at all,” said the woman.

She stopped replying to the defendant’s messages, after which he allegedly sent her threatening messages that he would defame her if she did not had a relationship with him and his two friends.

“He threatened to tell my family that I had a very dirty past and he would post altered pictures of me on social media,” said the woman, adding that she would receive more than 100 messages and 20 calls per day from the defendant.

On August 14 last year, the defendant allegedly threatened to burn down her house and car if she did not do what he wanted, at which point she went to Al Riffa police station and reported him.

Two men were apprehended but one remains at large.

The next hearing will be on January 29.