RIYADH, 12 December 2002 — Canadian police have arrested a suspected con man known as Mohammed Mustafa Agbareia, who has allegedly embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars by impersonating Saudi officials and other Muslim personalities worldwide.
Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), said that the Canadian authorities held the 37-year-old Israeli national on Dec. 5 on fraud charges. The Saudi Embassy in Washington and the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah had earlier warned against dealing with the impostor.
The con man’s modus operandi was to place phone calls claiming to be a well-known Muslim leader, official or scholar stranded at an airport after his money, passport and tickets had been stolen or lost.
He would ask the victim, typically a leader or activist in a local Muslim community, to wire cash through MoneyGram or Western Union to help him out of the crisis. After receiving the funds he would disappear.
He used this trick to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from Muslim individuals and institutions in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and the Islamic world, Awad said.
“Victims of this scam should immediately contact their local law enforcement authorities, inform them of the Canadian arrest, file a police report or update the report they filed in the past, and request that the report be forwarded to Canadian officials in charge of the case,” he said.
“We would also like to thank Canadian authorities, particularly the Toronto-area Orangeville Police Service, for their diligence and professionalism in helping to bring this man to justice,” said Awad.
Orangeville Police said it would issue a statement on the arrest of the con man within two days.
