The official spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al-Hussain, has warned against false and misleading electronic advertisements, impersonating the photo of His Excellency the Minister of Commerce, Dr. Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi, for promoting investments under various fake names or titles, including: “Message from the Crown Prince”, “Investment Opportunities for Saudis only” and “An Opportunity for Citizens”.
Mr. Al Hussain stated that marketing or publishing such advertisements is considered a punishable crime by law, since they involve fraud, deception and misleading. Notably, this method is used to raise funds illegally for unknown entities.
Mr. Al Hussain added that these ads are considered an explicit violation to the E-Commerce System. Notably, the penalties in such system may reach to a fine of up to one million riyals, blocking the violating site, preventing the violator of practicing such activity, besides defaming the violator on the local newspapers at his expense.
Mr. Al Hussain has pointed out that coordination has been done with the competent authorities to track the sources of these ads and to take the necessary legal measures against them.