Online dating: a Bahraini businessman claims he was duped by a Russian woman

A lovelorn Bahraini businessman claims that criminals have been targeting users of a marriage website for Muslims to con people out of money. Ahmed Abdulrahman, who joined Canada ­based Qiran.com in February, says he was duped by a Russian woman who persuaded him to send her money to help her sit some exams, although he refused to say exactly how much.

He claimed that in some cases men were even posing as women to lure potential victims. Mr Abdulrahman is also threatening to take legal action after claiming the company charged his credit card without permission.

The GDN reported in February that thousands of Bahrainis had turned to the website looking for marriage. It says that it provides "Muslim singles with the largest selection of potential marriage partners on the web, with more than one million members worldwide." In Bahrain alone 3,671 Muslim singles are already taking advantage of the service with membership increasing at a rate of around five people a month.

But despite the website's good intentions, Mr Abdulrahman said it was being abused by women looking for money and others who only wanted to flirt and find someone to settle down with. "I had an intention to find a Muslim girl, but some men are using women's pictures and fool you by giving fake names," he said. After complaining to the website about being duped, the businessman said he was warned about his behaviour for sending offensive, degrading and suggestive messages to other members. Mr Abdulrahman claimed that this proved the company does not care about its customers and is happy as long as it can draw money from their credit cards. He says he lost 31.99 Canadian dollars (BD11) as a result of his credit card being charged without his permission and called for the site to be banned.

The 45­-year-­old said his three­month membership expired on May 20, but the website still charged without informing him. This is after he had already paid 50 Canadian dollars (BD17) to register for the service, which promises customers to uphold traditional Islamic standards while helping people search for true love. "Before the end of my initial three­month membership expiry date, they sent me two renewal notices, but I didn't reply because I didn't want to renew my membership," Mr Abdulrahman told the GDN. "But they renewed my membership without my permission, as they had my credit card details stored in their system. They told me that I accepted the terms and conditions of auto renewal and that I have to fill up a refund form, but they didn't tell me where to send it." Mr Abdulrahman said he had already cancelled his credit card and will soon prepare an official request to the Information Ministry to ban the website.

However, Qiran.com's Bahrain representative Mohammed Saeed Ahmad said the website had done nothing wrong. "We have mentioned in our terms and conditions that the members will be charged automatically after their membership expires," he said. "The problem is that people don't read the terms and conditions before accepting them and then complain they have been cheated. We have been in the market for the past seven years and my personal e­mail and contact number have been provided so that they can go ahead and contact me if they have any doubts. We can definitely refund money but the members have to follow the rules and contact us." Mr Ahmad refused to comment on Mr Abdulrahman's claims that he lost money to a Russian woman, saying contact between members was private ­ unless it was abusive.