Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Aswan Swindler


Sat 14 May 2022 | 06:49 PM
Elham Aboul Fateh

I was surprised that well-known actor Ahmed Mekki, in his successful Ramadan series "Al-Kabir Awy", portrays "Madkour" the swindler of Al-Mazarita, who collect a large amount of money from the citizens for swindling them.. I thought that Mekki was presenting stories from the past, as it is not possible to think that there are citizens still  believe those swindlers .. until we heard about Aswan swindler, a " tuk-tuk driver", the 35-year old man who had a conviction as a dangerous criminal.. He was recently released from prison after serving his sentence in several cases. The first swindler appeared in Upper Egypt in 2015,  Ahmed Mostafa, who stole more than 30 million pounds by swindling citizens and deceiving them through telling them that he is investing their money in mobile charging cards.

Aswan swindler was able to collect nearly two billion pounds in a scenario that brought to minds all the Fraud Operations committed by those who are exploiting the citizens' need for money in light of the high prices and convincing them of persification and the illusion of investing money with revenues exceeding 50% to collect millions and billions of pounds. unfortunately, it became a phenomenon in all governates as there were swindlers in Alexandria, Sharkia, Assiut, Dakahlia and Menoufia. Almost all the governorates of Egypt have witnessed this phenomenon in which swindlers collect money from those who only want to secure their future and the future of their families with a stable income, to face high prices, poverty and destitution.

The problem is that the method has become well known and clear.. How can other victims be deceived?. there is a missing link between people’s awareness and the recurrence of the phenomenon. Have psychologists studied it? and where are the sociologists and economic experts? where are the solutions to eliminate it ?.

I think that in addition to awareness and warning campaigns, there must be other solutions.. Awareness campaigns should not be limited to television and radio, but there must be social researchers affiliated with the Ministry of Solidarity, and we should know why the simple people stay away from banks or even post offices that give high profits.. Surely, the swindler exploits people’s needs, and when the profit percentage offered reaches 50%, of course, many will salivate.

.. It is required to warn those who are looking for an income to face  the difficulties of life ..  all state agencies must cooperate to protect those victims,  laws must be changed to tighten the penalties to eliminate these fraudsters.