Dubai’s Oldest Laundry Shop Faces Closure After Dh34,000 Online Scam
Bait Al Abyad Cloth Pressing, believed to be Dubai’s oldest laundromat, is on the verge of closing after its owner, Ravi Verma, lost Dh34,000 in an online scam. Established in 1978 by Verma’s father-in-law in Jumeirah 1, the shop has served customers for nearly 50 years but now faces an uncertain future.
Verma explained that his troubles began in June when he received a WhatsApp message from a woman named Ria offering him part-time online work. She connected him to her senior, Salama, on Telegram. Initially, he completed simple tasks like adding products to Amazon carts and earned Dh5 per task. The easy money tempted him to continue.
Soon, the tasks required him to transfer money with the promise of higher returns. He started with Dh120 to earn Dh156, followed by larger amounts — Dh300, Dh1,480, and more. When he was told he had made a mistake and needed to pay Dh5,890 to fix it, he complied, hoping to recover his earlier payments. The demands kept increasing, with requests for Dh8,640, Dh3,150, and even Dh10,800. In total, he lost Dh34,150 before realizing he had been scammed. When he questioned the scammers, he was removed from the Telegram group.
The scam left Verma struggling to pay rent for his shop and home. “The real estate company has already filed a case against me. I may have to send my family back to India,” he said. He has filed a police complaint and provided details of the Telegram group and the bank accounts involved.
Task-based scams have been rising in the UAE. Last year, a Dubai hotelier lost Dh66,000 to a similar scheme. According to cybersecurity firm CloudSEK, such scams have stolen over Dh400 million globally. These scams typically lure victims with small payments for simple online tasks before demanding deposits or investments, showing fake earnings to trap victims into paying more.
To avoid falling victim to such fraud, authorities advise ignoring unsolicited job offers on messaging apps, never paying money to earn money, verifying employers through official websites, and avoiding suspicious links or unknown apps.
