Brothers Accused of Running Massive Romance Scam and Real Estate Fraud Network

Mounir and Mustapha, both originally from Val-d’Oise, have broken so many hearts, so many lives in their path. One of their victims is Sonia, a 39-year-old business manager. In May 2022, she had the misfortune of crossing paths with Mounir while she was at the wheel of her latest Mercedes on Avenue Foch in Paris (16th arrondissement). The two were exchanging words at a distance, each being in a vehicle. The thirtysomething cannot resist the charm of Mounir, now 36 years old. She gives him her number, which she rarely does. After a first date, they frequented each other for months. Mounir presents himself as a real estate dealer selling various properties in chic neighborhoods of Paris to Noisy-le-Grand (Seine-Saint-Denis). He is very enterprising: restaurants, daily calls. "He tells me phrases that women like to hear," recalls the young woman. He nicknames her "my teddy bear". He promises her commitment and marriage. She meets his brother Mustapha, his sister but also his parents. In a few months of relationships, the one who works between Paris and Dubai says she has lost more than 100,000 euros, "the savings of a lifetime". She would have partly taken out loans from her partner to be able to respond to the demands of the one she thought was her future husband.

After discovering that she was the victim of a romance scam, Sonia seized the justice system, but she did not prevail. Despite this, she remains determined to go to the end of her approach and to put Mounir and his brother out of harm’s way. She turns to social networks and tries to find new victims of the same type of romance scam. Sonia would have come across five other women. "He calls us by the same little nicknames. When he hangs up with one, he calls the other... It’s a whole job!" she explains. One of the victims is named Inès. She tells the Parisien about her misadventure. From her account, we note that she was in a relationship with Mounir for several years and that she now finds herself repaying alone a loan of 200,000 euros contracted over twenty-five years "to buy a property that she has never seen the color of, after going through the office of Fabrice D." "I was in love, under the influence, I had full confidence in Mounir. It’s a bad encounter that has ruined ten years of my life. I work like a fanatic to be able to repay my loan," confides the young woman. Like Sonia, Inès has never been heard by the investigators since the filing of her complaint in 2019. "It’s a nightmare," she testifies.

For the time being, the F. siblings are not being prosecuted by the justice system for the accusations of romance scams. Last March, Mounir and Mustapha were summoned before the court in another case. They are suspected of having scanned the victim’s signature to steal two Parisian apartments, for an amount of 1 million euros. The defendants requested to appear at a later hearing. It will be at the end of September.