No doubt most of you will never get caught up in something like this but others have before and others will in the future. I felt so violated I had to warn others. Talk about pressure selling. Is it really a scam though if you are signing of your own free will? This is my experience.
I land at Dubai on the big boy. I fly through customs and even get a free sim card by immigration. I'm looking for the exit. I chose a hotel that was right by it. I'm singled out by some dude pointing at me. You talking to me? I said jokingly. He beckons me over and says he can get me a free tour of the tallest hotel in Dubai. He clocks my Ibis printed confirmation. I ask for directions and he says it's just a 4 minute taxi ride. Taxi ride? On the map it looks just across the street. I'm now a little flustered. He starts asking me a load of questions to which I'm thinking, why do you need all that. He says, it's not a scam, we all have money here, I don't need yours. I thought hell yeah he's right, all that oil money they're all loaded here. This ain't the UK. He said what are you doing tomorrow? I said I'm only here for the day before I come back here for my onward flight. I'd like to do an open top bus tour of the city. Don't worry he said my guys will show you all around the city and it's not on a crowded bus, it'll be like your personal guide. Thought about giving him a false number but gave him the real one and off I went.
The next day I went for a little walk around the area primarily to change some money. Phone was left in the hotel. When I got back there were two missed calls. He called again I pick up an he arranges for a car to collect me. He said I've told them you are staying at the Mercure Hotel(same company, same building, opposite end of the block)and you are staying for 2 nights. Keep the story straight so you can qualify for a two night free stay in the future and I keep my numbers up. Hello what happened to you not needing money? For a freebie I can do that.
Driver picks me up and brings me down town. Immediately I'm thinking, this building doesn't look that tall. I'm met by a dude called Mario who brings me up in the lift some 20 odd floors. I'm seated in a room where there are other employees with what I am assuming are clients on sofas. Eventually some dude comes over dressed smartly in a suit and introduces himself to me. The smarm is dripping off him. He starts trying to ascertain how much money I make and why I've decided to invest in Dubai. Oh I get it now. It's an old bait and switch and this is some kind of presentation. Ok if I get to see the city then I'm kind of using them for my own purposes but come on the geezer at the airport could of just told me what it was from the get go.
So after the suit guy who said he was from Lebanon passes me over to another guy in a suit, claimed to be from Pakistan. We head down stairs and pick up the driver who brought me there. We head off and he is telling showing me the difference between old Dubai and new Dubai. Telling me about the rulers philosophy of making this place the best in the world. We'll build it bigger and better than anyone else. If we don't have it we'll bring it here. Prime example was the Palm area. You would have seen iconic photos of an Island in the shape of a palm tree leaves. They have an installation down there which is pretty awesome. Looks like a place people with money just go to chillout all day. I had a few good photo ops of the beach and surrounding area. The same driver is summoned, looks like he is just waiting around for us as our designated driver for the day. We head off to one of their hotels. Ah the concept.
In a nutshell you are purchasing a hotel room. Freehold apparently! You will be responsible for nothing as a premium agent such as a Marriot will take care of the running of the hotel. All you do is collect an agreed dividend across all investors that is the same whether the room is occupied or not. Only thing, this is off plan. You will pay a deposit then a down payment and instalments until the project is completed. Only then will dividends will start which could be anything from 3 to 5 years. He showed me a standard room as an example which was about a £275,000 investment.
We head to another installation of theirs called Ciel another tall magnificent building where I am treated to a nice dinner. This a long hard and very deliberate sell. Any questions I had were not answered when I wanted them answered rather than, that will come up later at some point during the presentation. We are about 4 hours in by now and obviously spending that much time together your true feelings may come out. I'm noticing old dude is laughing at me rather than with me. Do you really think I would part with thousands of pounds for someone who treats me with low level contempt?
The driver for the day brings us back to the first location which is their main offices. I'm shown the 3d model of the city with their present and future installations. Oh, including the tallest hotel in the world which we in fact didn't get to see. Pictures on the wall of the succession of rulers and the famous sports people who were in fact co owners of the company. Only one that stood out and could remember was Michael Owen. We end up in his office where the finishing touches to this finesse takes place. To be honest the way he explained everything, how they are bound by the government and how transparent everything has to be, if I had the spare cash I may well of considered investing.
So throughout the day it's all about if you invest or I hope you decide to invest. Now at the end of the day I'm expecting contact details to be confirmed and I'll be in touch. Instead he brings in another guy, Lebanese, purportedly the manager. Only investable upcoming project is for £400.000 and you have to sign up here an now otherwise the deal is no longer available. Do you really think I would commit to such a deal on the spot just like that? I'm being diplomatic so instead of a flat out fuck off it's a, I don't think I can commit to that amount of money right now. He says let me see what I can do and leaves the room. The guy who was showing me around says he has a lot of power in this company he may be able to pull some strings. He comes back and says, another guy has not been able to meet his payments(you don't say) so I have taken his unit and you can get it at a reduced rate. This is meant to be freehold remember. Initially they wanted £75-100,000 per instalment, now he was saying I could pay over 10 years and monthly. When I said no he said you can pay it over 30 years which is about £1200 a month, you must be able to afford that? In my mind I'm thinking, yeah I could but I won't. When he realized he was getting nowhere with me he shook his fist and smacked the table and made a sarcastic comment then left.
The guy who gave me the tour and hard sell was visibly crest fallen as though he had failed or maybe missed out on a huge bonus. All day the driver was there at the click of his fingers. Now someone would see that you get back to your hotel. I sat out in the big room. Where a young lady who I thought was going to organise my ride home tried to sell me some sort of package for up to £5000 for a series of stays in the tallest hotel in the world. Hold on, what happened to my 2 night stay I was promised? She said unless you take the package you can't get the two night stay. No thanks. She looked vexed and disappeared and I'm left there wondering how I'm going to get back. Luckily the guy who had driven us around all day appeared, not looking for me by the way. I joked, you've been driving me around all day, you're not going to leave me high and dry at the last are you? He said come on then. Big thanks to him, one of the good guys. I believe he did it under no instructions from the company. Even got him to stop off at a perfume shop, my hotel and drop me to the airport. Bung him a tenner/100AED.
You can check the reviews for The First Group and come to your own conclusion.
