Two men have been arrested after a doctor was conned into paying £72,000 for an Aladdin’s lamp that they convinced him contained a real genie inside.
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The men actually went to the trouble of conjuring up a fake genie to trick their victim, Dr. Laeek Khan, into handing over the cash in Uttar Pradesh, India.
According the Metro, one of the men pretended to be an occultist and made a ‘jinn’ – a supernatural spirit – appear from the lamp. When Dr. Khan asked if he could touch the genie or take the lamp home, they refused, saying it might cause him harm.
Khan later realised that the ‘genie’ was actually just one of the men in disguise, but that was after they agreed to sell him the lamp for £72,000, promising it would bring health, wealth and good fortune. They actually made him think that he had convinced them to sell the lamp to him. Pretty smart if you can find someone dumb enough to believe in Aladdin’s lamp in the first place.
Anyway, Dr. Khan contacted police when he realised that the lamp didn’t have any magical powers, and the wish-granting genie didn’t appear when he rubbed it.
Senior police officer Amit Ray said:
The cheats had struck a deal for much more but the doctor had paid about seven million rupees ($93,000).
He said the men had been arrested and remanded in custody ahead of charges being filed, adding:
The wife of one of these men was also involved in the fraud. She is on the run. ‘The men have also cheated other families using the same modus operandi. The total amount of money involved runs into several million rupees.
Unbelievable. I just cannot believe this man is a doctor and is dumb enough to fall for a £72,000 scam involving a genie in a lamp. How good was this conman’s disguise that he actually managed to convince him that he had appeared out of a lamp? Surely they got him stoned out of his mind at the very least?
Not to mention that he didn’t even wonder why they were selling him a lamp that brings you wealth instead of just keeping it themselves. Maybe they spun him a story to explain it, which must’ve been pretty easy considering what else this guy is ready to believe. Remind me to never go to the doctor’s if I’m ever in India.
For the Singapore crackhead who stabbed his mum to death because he believed she was a genie, click HERE. Pretty sure that’s not how you’re supposed to treat genies, dude.
