slowly accumulated to 250,000 dirham after the universities kept on asking for additional fees for attestation and other services over a period of two years.
“I kept on paying them and I did not doubt them because the couriers, invoices and calls all came from the US numbers. They told me that I would receive a degree based on my experience because it was a part time American programme,” he said.
A H said the university used to withdraw money from his credit card but later asked him to make the payments through Western Union by giving the money to a man called Waleed in Kuwait.
A H said he contacted Waleed after finding out about the scandal and Waleed said he no longer worked with the university.
“Towards the end, they told me that they will be transferring all my credits to the University of Atlanta. They said the university has offices in Emirates Towers’ 41st floor and they will be organising a graduation ceremony at Atlantis.”
Gulf News contacted Emirates Towers officers who said they did not have any office under the university’s name.
A H said the university also took part in the Gulf Education & Training Exhibition (Getex) in Dubai and had pictures of the event showing a prominent Emirati figure at their stand in the exhibition. They would boast about having the prominent figure at their stand to convince A H that the university was a credible one.
“After two years, I finally got my degree, which arrived from a USA courier only to find out that it was fake. The UAE authority needs to act on this because they are targeting Arabs, especially those in the UAE.”
He said the degree he received had the stamp of the UAE Embassy in Australia.A H called on authorities to act, believing that these universities were not only stealing money from people but also taking their personal information as they asked for passport copies, which could be used in a wrong way.
The Axact firm also had an office in Dubai, Axact FZ –LLC in Media City, which Gulf News visited and found to be still registered.Documents obtained by Gulf News show that of the 600,000 Axact shares, one is held by Shoaib Shaikh and another by his wife, Ayesha, while the remaining 599,998 shares are owned by Axact FZ LLC in Dubai.